20 June, Konya to Sultanhani,
108km
Kervansaray Camping and Pansion 60TL (breakfast included)
Until the last 20km we really had nothing
to complain about today, except perhaps the fact that the
flat-as-the-proverbial-pancake plain on which we spent the bulk of the distance
had little to offer in the way of visual stimulation. A cycle path painted blue
took us safely to the outskirts of Konya, despite the several trees and tree
branches blown across it during yesterday’s wind storm. And a wide shoulder
smoothly tarred accompanied us from the city to within 20km of Sultanhani, at
which point roadworks slowed us down. A small range of hills that cut into the
plain was easily conquered in three or four manageable segments, rewarding us
with a superb downhill coast on the other side; and a following wind added one
to two kph to our speed. Fabulous. Last night we attended a whirling dervish
performance* at the Mevlana Museum, and this afternoon in Sultanhani we visited
a caravanserai built on the silk route in 1239. Caravanserais (camel staging
posts) were built a day’s ride apart (15 to 30km) and were funded via taxes levied
on the trade in goods.
*Lonely Planet: “The Mevlevi worship
ceremony, or sema, is a ritual dance representing union with God; it’s what
gives the dervishes their famous whirl, and appears on Unesco’s third Proclamation
of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Watching a
sema can be an evocative, romantic, unforgettable experience. There are many dervish
orders worldwide that perform similar rituals, but the original Turkish version
is the smoothest and purest, more of an elegant, trancelike dance than the raw
energy seen elsewhere. The dervishes dress in long white robes with full skirts
that represent their shrouds. Their voluminous black cloaks symbolise their
worldly tombs, their conical felt hats their tombstones. The ceremony begins
when the hafız, a scholar who has committed the entire Quran to memory, intones
a prayer for Mevlâna and a verse from the Quran. A kettledrum booms out,
followed by the plaintive sound of the ney (reed flute). Then the şeyh (master)
bows and leads the dervishes in a circle around the hall. After three circuits,
the dervishes drop their black cloaks to symbolise their deliverance from
worldly attachments. Then one by one, arms folded on their breasts, they spin
out onto the floor as they relinquish the earthly life to be reborn in mystical
union with God. By holding their right arms up, they receive the blessings of
heaven, which are communicated to earth by holding their left arms turned down.
As they whirl, they form a ‘constellation’ of revolving bodies, which itself
slowly rotates. The şeyh walks among them to check that each dervish is
performing the ritual properly. The dance is repeated over and over again.
Finally, the hafız again chants passages from the Quran, thus sealing the
mystical union with God.”
Konya
Konya cycle path after storm
Between Konya and Sultanhani
Sultanhani caravanserai
Sultanhani caravanserai
Whirling dervishes
Whirling dervishes
Whirling dervishes