Stock Photo - A Map of Konya Province, marking Konya (also known as Koniah, Konieh, Konia, Qunia and Iconium) in Turkey. Dates from 3000 BC and successively came under the influence of the Hittites, the Indo-European Sea Peoples, the Phrygians and the Cimmerians. After Alexander the Great, the town came under the rule of Seleucus Nicator, then the Kings of Pergamum, Rome (under Claudius and under Hadrianus). Visited by St Paul and Barnabas according to the Acts of the Apostles. During the Byzantine period, the town was destroyed on several occasions by Arab invaders. Captured by the Seljuk Turk in 1071 and briefly occupied by Crusaders, reaching its height in the second half of the 12th century, lasting until the first decades of the 13th century. The tomb of Jelal al-Din Rumi, the Persian Sufi Poet and mystic, known as Mevlana and founder of the Sufi Mevlevi order is in Konya, where he spent the last 50 years of his life. Ibn Arabi the great Sufi mystic, visited in 1207 and married there with the Mother of his disciple Sadreddin Konevi, the widow of his great friend. The town is famous for being very conservative.