Early 20th-century travel guides to Crimea still touted dervishes whirling in a breathtaking shamanic dance as one of the peninsula's main attractions, but today unfortunately this site is about the only legacy left by the once-influential Sufi mystics. The 15th-century monastery served as a retreat for the wandering monks of the Mevlevi order who slept and meditated inside the arched niches of the main building. Sadly today there are no dervishes here – only tourists and nostalgic Crimean Tatars. Women are required to wear a scarf.
