According to sources, the town was founded around 690 BC as a Rhodian colony. It belonged to the Persian Empire for a long time from about 550 B.C. - a position that was culturally and economically important for many small Asian Greek cities. Politically, however, this was used as a pretext in Athens to camouflage the Athenian activities of the Attic Sea Alliance as an anti-Persian combat alliance.
Thus in 469 BC Phaselis was "forcibly liberated" and forced into the League - as a flourishing trading city with high tributaries in a strategically important location a significant gain for Athens.

After 411 B.C. again Persian, Phaselis surrendered to Alexander the Great in 333 B.C.. During the Wars of the Diadochi it was first Ptolemaic (until 197 B.C.) then Seleucidal (until 187 B.C.). Although it belonged to Pamphylia, it was incorporated into the Lycian League under Roman rule until about 100 B.C..
The strong competitor Attaleia (Antalya) as port and trading town brought Phaselis a first decline, which let it come down at the beginning of the 1st century B.C. together with Olympos to a loophole of Cilician pirates. Phaselis was the only town in the region with three ports.

The city flourished during the Roman period, when it was known as a flourishing commercial centre. From here, wood, rose oil, perfumes and fragrant creams were exported. Although Phaselis was until Byzantine times a naval and trading base with some prosperity, today's building stock is not very impressive.

The Seljuks had used the city as a quarry for the extension of Antalya's fortifications. A theatre, an aqueduct and a boulevard running across the peninsula between the former galley port and the commercial port have been preserved. The city's acropolis has not yet been excavated.