Olympos was a very important city in the Lycian League. The town had a commercial port along the coast of Anatolia. Coins minted in the second century B.C. are among the first finds dating back to the ancient city. Olympos was established in the Hellenistic period, in the third century B.C. In 78 B.C., it became part of the Roman Empire, first under the rule of the Venetians, then the Genoese, and still later then under Knights of Rhodes.
The city enjoyed a long period of prosperity, until it lost importance and was finally abandoned after the fifteenth century. The place where ancient Olympos once stood is now a protected area, in the Olympos Bey daglari National Park, recently instituted and extremely interesting from an environmental point of view. A stream runs through the city and on its banks, buried in lush vegetation, are the ruins of a small theater, hot springs, an agora and some tombs dating from the Hellenistic period.
