South of the Kyrenia Gate, you will find the Mevlana Museum, a fine 16th century rectangular building on which rest six domes. It was constructed by a general named Arap Ahmet Paşa following the Ottoman conquest of the island. Arap Ahmet Pasa, together with the commander of the conquering army, Lala Mustafa Paşa, was a member of the Mevlevi order (order of dervishes founded by Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi, also called "whirling dervishes").
Ceremonial dances took place inside the building until 1930, which was then used as a Mevlevi Lodge until its last head of the order died in 1954. Inside the building, there are also tombs and a semahane (dervish meeting-house for religious music and whirling where the “dance-floor” is still preserved). Sixteen Mevlevi sheiks are buried in the six tombs in the building – which is today also used as an ethnographic museum containing Cypriot costumes, cooking utensils and handwritten court records dating back to 1950.
