Beşparmak Mountains 2.8

Beşparmak Mountains are a ridge of many spurs located in the Muğla and Aydın provinces of Turkey, running in an east-west direction along the north shore of the former Latmian Gulf on the coast of Caria, which became part of Hellenised Ionia. The city of Latmus, located on the south slopes of Mount Latmus 25km east of Miletus, was originally a port on the narrow gulf, as reported by Strabo. He also states that Latmus is the same as Mount Phthires in the Catalogue of Trojans.The mouth of the Gulf of Latmus began to fill with sediment from the Maeander river, which emptied into it, even in classical antiquity. By 300 CE Lake Bafa had formed behind the estuary marshes. It gradually diminished in salinity and would now be fresh water except that canals to the Aegean introduce a saline element. The ecology remains a brackish-water one and the lake has been made a bird sanctuary. Its area of 7km2 with a maximum depth of 25m still extends from the base of the west spur of Mount Latmus, although, having lost its port, the ancient medium-sized town of Herakleia has declined in size and facilities to the small village of Kapikiri.Beşparmak looms far beyond Kapikiri to the east for a total distance of about 35km, 5km to 10km wide. It is deeply eroded by various streams into spurs. The spur that can be seen from Kapikiri is one Dağ, or "mountain", but the entire ridge with all the spurs is Dağlar, "mountains", in the sense of "range." The ancient writers generally recognized the western spur over the gulf as Latmus, but Strabo reports that the ridge east was called Mount Grium and extended through Caria.