CAPPADOCIA - WHIRLING DERVISHES SHOW
The original whirling dervish, the Turkish Muslim Sufi Mevlana Calaleddin Rumi from Horason in today''s Ozbekistan, was brought to Konya along with all the other leading philosophers
of the time  at the behest of the most famous Selcuk emperor Alaeddin Keykubad. Mevlana''s spectacular whirling sema (dance), which stunned and amazed spectators, was designed to
facilitate a deep, almost trance-like meditation of the love of Allah (God).The ''show'' is given by members of the Mevlevi order, who follow Mevlana''s mystical teachings. The dance
is a symbolic, ritualized routine that incorporates whirling. The performers wear the traditional costume with the hat symbolizing the gravestone, the white dress the soul,
the black coat the grave, and the whirling the turning of all things (the stars, the earth, the baby in the womb, and even atomic particles. Live musicians play and sing philosophical
music on traditional instruments inter-dispersed with readings of sections from the Koran.Only here in Cappadocia is the full routine performed in a respectful atmosphere of dimmed
lights where the audience sits around a circular stage in the setting of a traditional Caravanserai.