Mevlana Rumi Museum Teeming with Tourists

Bureau Report - Zaman Online - Istanbul,Turkey

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

The number of Turkish and foreign tourists that visited the Mevlana Museum in Konya, Turkey in the first 10 months of this year has reached 1.1 million.

At least 100,000 people are expected to attend the Commemoration of Mevlana between Dec. 1-17.

The Mevlana Museum, which remains the second-most visited place in Turkey after Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, is teeming with Turkish tourists as well this year said the museum’s curator Erdogan Erol.

The number of tourists has been on the rise in recent years, especially with the recent advertising campaign, said Erol.
He remarked that the greatest number of tourists ever to visit since the museum’s establishment in 1926 was 1,392,710 in 2005.

The museum hosted 1,389,500 people in 2004, Erol said, and added, “Last year there was an [enormous] increase when compared to 2004. Previously, a large majority of visitors were foreigners from particular countries, but now thousands of them come from any country you can imagine. The Turkish and foreigner tourist flow continues. In the first ten months of this year 1.1 million people visited the museum.”

Director of Selcuk University’s Center for Mevlana Research and Practice (SUMAM) Dr. Nuri Simsekler said that the number of people gravitating toward Sufism and Mevlana began to increase following the translation of his works.

Those who know and love Mevlana through his works set off to where he once lived, Simsekler noted. He also emphasized the importance the Year of Mevlana in 2007, which will bring for Turkey the promoting and spreading of Mevlana’s teachings.