The ancient city of Kandyba is next to the Çataloluk village on the Elmalı-Kaş road. The old name of the village is Gendive which is a phonetically altered version of Kandyba. The Lycian name of the settlement was Xãkbi. The acropolis hill is located in the northeast of the village. Some building foundations carved into the rocks and a few cisterns are the only visible structures in the acropolis. The well-preserved parts of the fortification walls surrounding the acropolis are from the Byzantine period. There was a small Hellenistic theater carved on the rock just in front of the acropolis gate on the south side of the hill but almost no trace remains of it, except a small section of the top seat rows. On the rocks around the acropolis, there are a few rock tombs (two of them with Lycian inscriptions) and sarcophagi. Despite the scarcity of visual remains, Kandyba was a well known city since the dynastic period and was a member of the Lycian League. It continued to exist until the Byzantine period. The city minted coins under its own name in the dynastic period and also became an important coinage center of the region.
References:
Çevik, N. 2021. Lykia Kitabı: Arkeolojisi, Tarihi ve Kültürüyle Batı Antalya, Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara.
Borchhardt, J., H. Eichner & K. Schulz. 2005. KERTHTHI oder der Versuch, eine antike Siedlung der Klassik in Zentrallykien zu identifizieren, Adalya Supp. Series 3, Antalya.
Müseler, W. 2018. ‘Beyond the Xanthos Valley: Rulers and mints in Eastern and Central Lycia at the time of the “dynasty of Xanthos” ‘, Gephyra 15, 11-18.
Wurster, W. W. 1976. ‘Antike Siedlungen in Lykien. Vorbericht über ein Survey-Unternehmen im. Sommer 1974’, AA48, 23–49.
Image sources:
W. W. Wurster, 1976
J. Borchhardt et al., 2005
Tayfun Bilgin, 2022
Bora Bilgin, 2022, 2023