Panorama Konya (Konyanüma), Mevlana Rose Garden and Sahip Ata Complex

Directly across the street from the southern wall of the Mevlana Museum (just past the historic Three Tombs, Üçler Mezarlığı) stands one of the best-designed modern museums in Central Anatolia: the Panorama Konya Museum (Konyanüma). Visiting Konyanüma for an hour right before or after the Mevlana Museum shows you exactly what the walled Seljuk capital looked like when Rumi walked its streets in the 1240s.

1. Inside Panorama Konya (Konyanüma, 3 Parts Under One Roof)

1. The 360-Degree Panoramic Dome of 13th-Century Konya: ascend into the massive circular dome, where a continuous 360-degree oil painting and three-dimensional foreground stage recreate daily life in 1240s Seljuk Konya, complete with the lost double walls and twelve towers of Konya Castle, busy silk and spice bazaars, the arrival of Shams of Tabriz, Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad's procession and rural life on the plain, accompanied by spatial sound effects.
2. The Biography Gallery of Mevlana's Journey: before ascending to the dome, walk through the underground arcaded gallery where dramatic oil paintings and wax tableaux trace Rumi's life journey from his birth in Balkh (in modern Afghanistan) in 1207 through Nishapur, Baghdad, Mecca, Damascus and Karaman to his final home in Konya.
3. The Open-Air Courtyard of 30 Miniature Mevlevihanes: in the octagonal central courtyard stand meticulous 1-to-25 architectural scale models of more than thirty historic Mevlevi Dervish Lodges (Mevlevihaneler) from across the Ottoman world, including Galata and Yenikapı in Istanbul, Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo, Tripoli, Jerusalem, Nicosia, Thessaloniki and Sarajevo.

2. The Sahip Ata Complex and Archaeological Museum (Larende Caddesi)

Ten minutes' walk west of Mevlana along Larende Caddesi (just south of Alaeddin Hill) stands the 1258 to 1283 Sahip Ata Külliyesi, comprising a mosque entered through a twin-minaret carved stone portal, a hankah (dervish lodge), a double bathhouse and the dazzling turquoise-tiled Tomb of Grand Vizier Sahip Ata Fahreddin Ali. Right across the street sits the Konya Archaeological Museum, whose highlight is the 3rd-century AD Roman white marble Hercules Sarcophagus carved in high relief with all Twelve Labours of Hercules.