Increasing Numbers

By TZ Staff Writer w/Wires, *Mevlana Museum draws record number of visitors in 2010* - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey; Saturday, January 8, 2010

The Mevlana Museum in the Central Anatolian province of Konya drew a record number of visitors last year, having been visited by nearly 2 million people throughout 2010, news agencies reported yesterday.

The Mevlana Museum, which houses the tomb of the 13th-century Sufi saint and poet Mevlana Muhammad Jelaluddin Rumi, attracted 1,750,000 visitors in 2010, the museum’s deputy director, Naci Bakırcı, told the Anatolia news agency.

A total of 422,445 foreign tourists visited the museum in 2010, increasing numbers by 35 percent when compared to 2009 figures, Bakırcı said.

The museum, housed in a 16th-century structure, draws approximately 8,000 museum-goers daily. Last year’s Sheb-i Arus ceremonies, the annual weeklong ritual commemorating Rumi on the anniversary of his death, also held on the museum’s grounds, attracted 52,500 visitors to the museum from Dec. 7-17, Bakırcı added.

Each year, on Dec. 17, the Mevlevi Order performs a sema (dance of the whirling dervishes) ceremony to mark Rumi’s death and his reunion with God.

[Picture: Turkish Banknote (1981-1994) depicting Mevlana Rumi. Photo: Wiki.]