The site can be reached through the 3-km road that turns northwards from Yemişkumu Neighborhood, which is located 13 km to Erdemli District, Mersin. The settlement was founded around and to the north of a large sinkhole. Apart from being an important religious center within the Olba Kingdom in Antiquity, it was revealed that Kanlıdivane was an important olive oil production place.
It is claimed that the name Kanlıdivan derives from the “Divan” meetings of nomadic Turkish tribes gathering in this place from time to time to take general decisions, and the term “kanlı” (bloody) stems either from Kanytelleis or the blood like color of the rocks in the sinkhole. Local people also believe that the place was given its name because convicts were left in the sinkhole to be brutally shredded by lions.
Among the remains there stands a historical tower dated to Hellenistic Era on the southern part of the sinkhole, five churches from the 5th and the 6th centuries, tombs, reliefs and necropolis areas towards Çanakçı direction.