Habesos is the oldest name of the ancient city here; in history it is known as Antiphellos. It stood where the roads linking Caria and Lycia crossed, and it was a trading port as well.
Alexander took it during his Anatolian campaign, and after his early death the region changed hands between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies. Antiphellos gained importance under Rome and became a bishopric under Byzantium. It was raided by the Arabs in that period, then joined to Anatolian Seljuk territory under the name Andifli. After the Seljuk state fell the Tekeoğulları principality took over, and Bayezid I brought the district into the Ottoman empire.
The people of this coast are older than any of those names. The Lycians lived on the peninsula between the gulfs of Antalya and Fethiye — today's Teke peninsula — and appear in Hittite texts as the Lukka. They were kin to the Luwians, and the municipality's account reads a strong sense of union in them as early as the late 15th century BC, when they joined the Assuwa confederation that the peoples of Anatolia formed against the Hittites.
Two later episodes are cited for the same reading: they stood with the Hittites against the Egyptians at Kadesh, and in Homer's Iliad they came to the aid of the Trojans against the Achaeans. Around 540 BC, seeing that they could not hold out against the Persians, they gathered those who could not bear arms in the citadel of Xanthos. The rock tombs above the town, the ancient theatre, Kekova and the sunken city each have their own page below.
