Buildings and coinage suggest a foundation in Hellenistic times. Olympos was an important member of the Lycian League.
At the beginning of the 1st century BC, Olympos suffered the same fate as the nearby city of Phaselis - it was conquered by Cilician pirates. Directly at the coast the steep castle rock rises up with remains of the fortifications.

In the years 77/78 B.C. the Romans conquered the city and put an end to the hustle and bustle of the pirates. The prosperity that the city had experienced during its membership in the Lycian League did not reach it also in the Roman imperial period, although an upswing is to be registered again. Olympos was famous for the nearby "eternal fires" of the Chimaira, around which the cult of Hephaistos, the Greek god of fire and blacksmith, was built. In the 3rd century A.D. Olympos is once again mentioned as a bishop's seat - but in the 15th century the last inhabitants finally left the city.

For a long time Olympos was completely forgotten. The city was divided into two halves by a stream. The remains of a bridge can still be seen. Unfortunately, the remaining buildings, such as a small Roman theatre, the remains of a temple from the 2nd century BC and a basilica from the Byzantine period are heavily dilapidated and largely overgrown. The necropolis with its numerous graves is not to be overlooked, but they are not all of Lycian origin.

During the Crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries, Venice, Genoa and Rhodes occupied the city. They probably used both the Acropolis and the Genoese Castle on the eastern bank of the city, which they also extended for defence purposes.
In 1346 and 1347, in addition to several towns in the region, Olympos was also afflicted by various plague epidemics, which in some places caused the extinction of up to 50% of the population.
With the occupation by the Ottomans in the 15th century, there was no more settlement.

According to the traditions of the local population of Yazır, around 1850 a man named Kıbrıslı Hacı Hasan built a water mill on the southern harbour road, using building material from the ancient buildings.

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