It was a lush, densely forested area that they called "Kabeyawan," which sounds rather like "Turtle Cliff Bay" in Chinese (another explanation has it that at dusk sea turtles could be seen stacked upon each other on the ocean cliffs, giving rise to this name).
當時琅嶠為排灣族所盤據，原是一片密林綠莽，原住民稱為「庫匹亞旺」（KABEYAWAN），漢音譯為「龜壁灣」（另有傳說是此地每到傍晚會有大量海龜在海邊峭壁上聚集爬行、疊羅漢，蔚為奇觀而得名）。