Ision is a fortification already built in Hellenistic times. It was undoubtedly erected as an upstream, eastern point of the observation and defence system of the city of Myra and its port of Andriake.

The first known written mention of Ision can be found in the description of the well-known coasts and harbours of the Mediterranean, the "Stadiasmus Maris Magni", written in ancient Greek and preserved in fragments. The work was written by an anonymous author and dates from the second half of the third century BC.