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A small mountain village in Karaman, southern Türkiye, experiences one of the shortest daily periods of sunlight in the country, with the sun appearing only briefly around midday during winter months due to its geographic position.
Daran village, located in the Sariveliler district of Karaman province, is surrounded by high-altitude mountains to the east and south. Because of this natural barrier, sunlight reaches the settlement much later than usual and disappears again within a few hours.
During the winter period, the sun rises over the village at around 12:30 p.m. and sets again by approximately 3:30 p.m., leaving residents with only about three hours of daylight. According to experts, this unusual pattern is not linked to latitude, as seen in polar regions, but rather to local topography.
Village headman Bahadir Yunt said the settlement, home to around 90 households and about 300 people, is believed to be the least sunlit village in Türkiye. He explained that this situation lasts for nearly two months every year, during which residents see the sun only briefly in the middle of the day.
According to him, sunlight begins to reach the village earlier in the morning after January, gradually shifting to around 9 a.m. as winter eases.
Yunt noted that villagers look forward to the arrival of spring, when longer days allow more sunlight to spill into the valley and daily routines become easier to manage.
Resident Ibrahim Baysal described how the sun had risen shortly before he spoke, only to disappear again a few hours later. He said the community counts down to the end of December, since after Dec. 21 the days begin to lengthen and sunlight slowly increases. This seasonal change, he explained, brings relief after weeks of limited daylight.
Despite the challenging conditions, villagers say they have grown used to the rhythm imposed by the mountains, adapting their lives to the brief window of sunshine that defines winter in Daran.
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