TThe ancient city of Kandyba is located near the village of Çataloluk on the Elmalı–Kaş road. The former name of the village, Gendive, appears to preserve a phonetic variation of Kandyba. The Lycian name of the settlement was Xãkbi.
The acropolis hill lies to the northeast of the village. Within the acropolis, only a limited number of remains are visible, including building foundations carved into the bedrock and several cisterns. The best-preserved sections of the fortification walls surrounding the acropolis date to the Byzantine period.
On the southern slope of the hill, just in front of the acropolis gate, there once stood a small Hellenistic theater carved into the rock. Today, however, almost no trace of it survives, apart from a small հատված of the upper seating rows. Scattered across the rocky terrain around the acropolis are several rock-cut tombs—two of which bear Lycian inscriptions—as well as a number of sarcophagi.
Despite the limited visible remains, Kandyba was a prominent settlement from the dynastic period onward and was a member of the Lycian League. The city continued to be inhabited into the Byzantine period. It minted coins under its own name during the dynastic period and later developed into an important regional center for coin production.
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,” AA 48, 23–49.
Images:
W. W. Wurster, 1976
J. Borchhardt et al., 2005
Bora Bilgin, 2022, 2023
Tayfun Bilgin, 2022, 2025