The Latmos Mountains
The Latmos Mountains in the hinterland of Miletus on the shores of Lake Bafa are one of the most beautiful landscapes and richest regions in terms of archaeological findings on the western coast of Turkey (1). In antiquity, the region formed the north-western tip of Caria, directly adjoining Ionia (2). Today the northern part belongs to the administrative district of Aydın, the southern part to the district of Muğla.
The Latmos Mountains, known as Beşparmak (five fingers) in Turkish on account of their serrated silhouette, lie like a wall between the valley of the Meander to the north and the Grion Mountains in the south, dominating the landscape from afar with their wildly fissured masses of gneiss, granite, and slate. In this mountain range, that is accessible with great difficulty, with its precipitous rocky slopes, idyllic highland plateaux and densely forested mountainous regions, a piece of natural landscape has been preserved to the present day (3-6). Here the most varied traces of settlement are to be found in a restricted area, ranging from prehistoric times to the most recent past.