Mevlevi Tekke.

What to see at Mevlevi Tekke

• The Mevlevi Tekke (Mevlevi Tekkesi), lodge of the whirling dervishes of Cyprus, keeps its semahane, the hall of the ritual dance, and its tomb section.
• The dervish rooms, kitchen and guest rooms that once stood round them have gone.
• It is now the Mevlevi Museum, in the walled city of Lefkoşa.

History of Mevlevi Tekke

Early 17th century

The lodge is built on land given by Emine Hatun.

1607

Konya sends the first sheikh, Saadeddin İbni Muharrem.

1954

Sheikh Şamlı Selim Dede dies and the order fades on the island.

1963

The lodge opens as the Turkish Cypriot Museum, the first Turkish museum.

Visiting Mevlevi Tekke

Allow half an hour. The lodge stands in the walled city of Lefkoşa (Nicosia), just past Kyrenia Gate (Girne Kapısı). A car park is mapped about 50 m away, and intercity buses stop at Kyrenia Gate, about 100 m on foot.

Monuments near Mevlevi Tekke

• Kyrenia Gate and the Nicosia wallsabout 100 m northThe Venetian gate of Lefkoşa that the Ottomans rebuilt in 1821.
• National Struggle Museumabout 200 m north-eastThe Turkish Cypriot people's struggle from 1878 to 1974, told on the Musalla bastion.
• Kumarcılar Hanabout 400 m southThe second great han of Lefkoşa, recorded in 1748, built over medieval remains.