Idebessos
A tomb of the exedra type in Idebessos/Idebessus
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 Shown within Turkey
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| Alternate name | Edebessus, Edebessos |
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| Location | Kozağacı, Antalya Province, Turkey |
| Region | Lycia |
| Coordinates | 36°33′17″N 30°12′08″E / 36.55472°N 30.20222°ECoordinates: 36°33′17″N 30°12′08″E / 36.55472°N 30.20222°E |
| Type | Settlement |
| Length | 360 m (1,180 ft) |
| Width | 160 m (520 ft) |
| Area | 5.76 ha (14.2 acres) |
Idebessos or Idebessus, also known as Edebessus or Edebessos (Ancient Greek: Ἐδεβησσός) or (Ancient Greek: Ἐδεβησός), was an ancient city in Lycia. It was located at the foot of the Bey Mountains to the west of the Alakır river valley. Today its ruins are found a short distance to the west of the small village of Kozağacı in the Kumluca district of Antalya Province, Turkey. The site, 21 kilometres north-northwest of Kumluca, is overgrown with forest and hard to reach.
The city lies at an altitude of 1050 meters. Due to the nature of the terrain, the city was built in a north-south orientation and occupies approximately 360 by 160 meters. Larger public buildings and the necropolis were built on flatter areas in the west, while dwellings were mostly built on the sloping part of the terrain in the east. The eastern slope is widened by terrace walls at different elevations, which provided narrow corridors with primarily houses.
Except for a coin from the Classical period, which has been controversially attributed to the city, there is no evidence of the city's existence before the Hellenistic period. Idebessos was a member of the Lycian League from its foundation in 168 BC. Inscriptions mention that the city was a polis and a member of a sympoliteia with Akalissos and Kormos. The sympoliteia was led by Akalissos and represented by a single vote in the Lycian League during the Roman period.
A Lycian town named Edebessus (Ἐδεβησσός) is mentioned by the Lycian Capito in his Isaurica, an 8-volume history of Isauria. The Synecdemus lists Elebesus (Ἐλεβεσός), corrected to "Edebessus" (Ἐδεβησσός) in Wesseling's 1735 edition, while Parthey's 1866 edition suggests that it may correspond to the Λεβισσός or Λιβυσσός (Lebissus or Libyssus) mentioned in the Notitiae Episcopatuum. A report on archaeological investigations in 2005 also presumed an identity of Idebessus with the bishopric town of Lebissos or Lemissos. However, the list of titular sees (formerly residential) that are recognized by the Catholic Church includes both Idebessus (identified with modern Kozağacı) and Lebessus (identified with modern Kayaköy) and describes each as a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Myra, the capital of the Roman province of Lycia.
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