Mountain foresights and solar thrones
On the shores of Lake Bafa, surrounded by the granite outcrops of the Latmos Mountains (today's Beşparmak Mountains), are the ruins of a Carian settlement. This ancient community, later known as Herakleia at Latmus, used the very mountains around them as a celestial instrument. Researchers have identified multiple shrines and sacred sites deliberately oriented to the winter solstice sunrise. The builders used prominent V-shaped notches and specific peaks on the mountain horizon as a foresight to mark the exact point where the sun would appear on the shortest day of the year.
From a designated "backsight," a throne-like seat or a specific altar—an observer would watch the sun climb directly into the prepared notch. This event marked a significant moment in the year, likely tied to religious ceremonies and the agricultural calendar. The Carians, who inhabited this region from around the 11th century BCE, established these sites long before the area was Hellenized. The alignments are not found in the later Greek city plan of Herakleia, but in the older, more scattered Carian holy sites, suggesting a local tradition of observational astronomy. One of these cult sites is associated with a weather or sun god, whose figure is depicted on a stele within an artificial niche that frames the solstice sunrise.