3383 TURKEY (Central Anatolia Region) - Mevlana Museum in Konya

Located in Konya, the Mevlâna Museum is the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian Sufi mystic also known as Mevlâna or Rumi. It was also the dervish lodge (tekke) of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes, about which I wrote here.This is one of the biggest pilgrimage centres in Turkey, and also the most visited museum, receiving 2.5 million visitors in 2017, most of them Turkish.

3073 TURKEY (Central Anatolia Region) - Mevlevi Sema ceremony (UNESCO ICH)

The Mevlevi is an ascetic Sufi order founded in 1273 by the followers of the Persian poet and Islamic theologian Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi in Konya (capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate), from where it gradually spread throughout the Ottoman Empire. Today, they can be found in many Turkish communities throughout the world, but the most famous centres are in Konya and Istanbul. The Mevlevi are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of God).

1708 TURKEY (Marmara Region) - Karagöz and Hacivat (UNESCO ICH)

 

Bursa was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, between 1335 and 1363, and for that reason represents one of the richest legacies of the early Ottoman art and architecture. On the other hand, the city is famous for its Iskender Kebap, one of the best dishes of world, for the candied chestnuts (Kestane Sekeri), and for its unique peaches. As for something to purchase, Bursa is a center of the silk trade (since first silk cocoons were brought here with the caravans of the Silk Road) and towel manufacturing. It is also the homeland of the very famous Turkish folklore figures, Karagöz and Hacivat shadow puppets.

1336 TURKEY - A belly dancer

Belly dance is a translation of the French term "danse du ventre", applied to the dance in the Victorian era, and originally referred to the Ouled Nail dancers of Algeria, whose dance used more abdominal movements than the dances described today as "belly dance". Actually is a misnomer, because every part of the body is involved in the dance; the most featured body part is usually the hips. Belly dance takes many different forms depending on the country and region, both in costume and dance style, and new styles have evolved in the West as its popularity has spread globally.

0859 TURKEY (Aegean Region) - A zeibek from the Aegean Region

I found this little marvel in one of the souvenir shops located near the temple of Apollo in Didim, one of those stalls studded with thousands of articles, where the kitsch coexist peacefully with authentic handicraft. When he saw me skimming discontented through the postcards displayed on the wire rack at the entrance, the seller (who was probably also the owner) invited me inside. "I have others too. Maybe you will find among them something to your liking", he said, leaving me in front of other racks, filled with hundreds of common postcards, not a few of them discolored, bent, and stained by flies. I ransacked among them more than half an hour, but I haven't regretted, because I found this postcard and another one, with a belly dancer. "Oh, is from our area, an outlaw or something like that," said the man staring at the image. "I didn't even know that I have it."