Mevlana Museum & Aphrodisas

---

This may be my shortest blog yet.

We started the day by visiting the Mausoleum of Mevlana, or otherwise known as the Mevlana Museum. It is where Rumi is buried and it contains several artifacts of his writings. Rumi was a Sufi mystic and is well known for his writings and poetry. This is also where the whirling dervishes lived and practiced their devotion.

Next stop was the Karatay Theological School. This building is no longer being used but is now being used as a museum. It contained beautiful tiles on the walls and dome.
The next day we visited the ruins of Hierapolis. St. Peter was killed here and many early Christians wanted to be buried in the same place as Peter, so this site had a large number of ruins that served as burial chambers.

The next stop was Aphrodisias. This site is only 20% excavated and our guide believes in the next 20 to 30 years, this site will be the best site in Turkey to see the ancient ruins. What we saw was amazing and I particularly enjoyed seeing the stadium, which would hold 30,000 people who came to watch the chariot races. The most incredible thing about these ruins, there are no ropes. You can climb up and down each row and run to the middle of the stadium. You can go anywhere, and of course, I really like that.

---

Photos

Stadium
This would hold 30,000 people.

Mausoleum of Mevlana
or otherwise known as Mevlana Museum.

Karatay Theological School
Dome with beautiful tiles. Built in 1251.

Family Size Tomb
at Hierapolis. St. Peter was killed here.

Tumulus Tomb
1st Century B.C.

Theater at Aphrodisias
this would hold 7,000 people.

Bouleuterion
- Like a modern day town hall.

Monumental Gateway
to the Sanctuary of Aphrodite