Alaeddin Hill (Alaeddin Tepesi), Alaeddin Mosque and Shams of Tabriz

Right in the geographic centre of Konya, encircled like a roundabout by the main tram line, rises a green, pine-shaded oval hill measuring 450 by 350 metres and standing twenty metres above the surrounding streets: Alaeddin Hill (Alaeddin Tepesi). Far from being a natural rock hill, this entire mound is a 5,000-year-old artificial prehistoric settlement mound (höyük) built up from layer upon layer of Early Bronze Age, Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk cities. Today it is Konya's favourite shaded park for drinking tea under the pines while visiting the royal mosque of the Seljuk Empire.

1. The Alaeddin Mosque and Royal Seljuk Mausoleums (1155 to 1221)

Crowning the northern crest of the hill stands Alaeddin Camii, the oldest and most historically important Seljuk monument in Konya. Begun under Sultan Mesud I in the 1150s, expanded by Kılıç Arslan II and completed in 1221 by Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I:

• 41 Antique Columns and the 1155 Ebony Minbar: inside the eastern prayer wing, forty-one spolia Roman and Byzantine marble columns topped with Corinthian and Ionian capitals hold up the roof. In front of the tiled mihrab stands a masterpiece of Islamic woodworking: the 1155 ebony-and-walnut minbar (pulpit) carved by master Mengümberti of Ahlat using interlocking kündekari joinery without a single nail.
• The Decagonal Royal Tomb in the Courtyard: in the central courtyard stands a ten-sided stone mausoleum capped by a conical stone roof where eight Seljuk Sultans of Rum (including Kılıç Arslan II, Süleyman Shah II and Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev I) lie buried in glazed-tile sarcophagi.
• The Surviving Wall of the Seljuk Royal Palace (Kılıç Arslan Köşkü): on the northern edge of the hill directly opposite Karatay Madrasa, a protective modern shelter covers the last standing mudbrick-and-stone tower stub of the 12th-century Seljuk Imperial Palace.

2. The Mosque and Tomb of Shams of Tabriz (Şems-i Tebrizi, 5 mins east of the Hill)

Walk five minutes east from Alaeddin Hill toward the Bedesten into tiny, rose-filled Şems Parkı. Here stands the 1510 stone mosque and pyramidal-roofed tomb of Shams of Tabriz (Şems-i Tebrizi), the wandering dervish mystic whose arrival in Konya on 29 November 1244 (and historic meeting with Mevlana Rumi at the Meram el-Bahreyn, "Meeting of the Two Seas", marker on Mevlana Caddesi) transformed Rumi from a conventional legal scholar into the ecstatic poet of Divine Love before Shams mysteriously vanished in 1247.