Konya

Konya (ˈkoɲ.ja) is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (Ἰκόνιον). In 19th-century accounts of the city in English its name is usually spelt Konia or Koniah. In the late medieval period, Konya was the capital of the Seljuk Turks' Sultanate of Rum, from where they ruled over Anatolia. As of 2021, the population of the Metropolitan Province was 2,277,017, making it the sixth most populous city in Turkey, and second most populous of the Central Anatolia Region, after Ankara. Of this, 1,390,051 lived in the three urban districts of Meram, Selçuklu and Karatay. Konya is served by TCDD high-speed train (YHT) services from Istanbul and Ankara. The local airport (Konya Havalimanı, KYA) is served by flights from Istanbul. Konya was known as Kawana during the Hittite period. This was later rendered as Kawania, or Kaoania during the Phrygian and Luwian period. Konya was known in classical antiquity and during the medieval period as Ἰκόνιον (Ikónion) in Greek (with regular Medieval Greek apheresis Kónio(n)) and as Iconium in Latin. Ikónion is the Hellenisation of an older Luwian name Ikkuwaniya. Some claim that the name Ikónion was derived from εἰκών ('icon'), referring to an ancient Greek legend according to which the hero Perseus vanquished the native population with an image of the "Gorgon Medusa's head" before founding the city. Konya was known as Dârülmülk to the Rum Seljuks. The Konya region has been inhabited since the third millennium BC and fell at different times under the rule of the Hittites, the Phrygians, the Classical Greeks, the Persians and the Romans. In the 11th century the Seljuk Turks conquered the area and began ruling over its Rûm (Byzantine Greek) inhabitants, making Konya the capital of their new Sultanate of Rum. Under the Seljuks, the city reached the height of its wealth and influence.