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Modern Description: A city of Caria in Classical times to which the neighbouring sanctuary of Artemis Kindyas belonged. The site of Bargylia is desolate, and the adjacent plain is virtually uninhabited. Here, as on parts of the Halicarnassus peninsula,'s3 the Turkish pattern of occupation is similar to that which seems to have prevailed in classical times before the fourth-century synoecisms. The bulk of the population lives in two substantial villages (Sigirtmac and Ucpinar) on the side of the mountain that lies to the east of the Bargylian plain; and the steep ridge above, at an altitude of 200-300 metres, bears the ruins of a large town (Sigirtmac Kalesi) of classical date. The crest of the ridge is crowned by a citadel c. 120 metres long, which is built in dry rubble masonry tending in places to polygonal. We saw no recognizable Hellenistic masonry. An opening, presumably the ancient gate, faces downhill at the northwest end; it was defended by a hyperdexian bastion, which measures 16 by 12 metres and has a slit window in its south-west side; there is much fallen masonry in the interior of the citadel. A slightly lower spur about I50 metres distant along the ridge to the south-east bears traces of a fortification; and this seems to have formed the apex of an outer circuit, whose line can be traced as it passes close in to the citadel on the north side and apparently descends to take in a lower stretch of the ridge opposite the citadel gate. We could not pick up the line of the outer circuit with any certainty on the south-west side; the slope on this flank bears considerable traces of ancient buildings stretching for some distance down from the ridge. We estimated the length of the whole fortified perimeter as not much less than 450 metres and its greatest width as perhaps exceeding 200 metres. The site thus appears to have been that of a city of considerable size and importance, the equal in extent of any of the classical city-sites known in Caria. The surface pottery is mainly plain ware; but we picked up several fragments of striped wares, scraps of black glaze, and apparently tile of fourth-century Ionic type. We saw nothing recognizably Hellenistic. Terracotta roof-tiles were not in use in the Lelegian towns which were abandoned at the time of the Mausolan synoecism (c. 370-365 B.c.), but seem to have been in full use in the town on Salihadasi which we believe to be classical Caryanda; on this slight evidence we might suggest that the site at Slgirtmac was abandoned at a later date than the Lelegian towns, though not so late as the island town of Caryanda. Bean/Cook
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindye
Wikidata ID: Q17993738
Trismegistos Geo: 58964

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