Rhodiapolis is situated on a hill 3 km northwest of the city centre of Kumluca.
The town has been documented to have existed from the fourth century BC to the seventh century AD. With the exception of a stone tomb with Lycian inscription, the town has few traces of settlement before the fourth century BC.

It was probably founded like the cities of Gagai, Olympos, Phaselis and Korydalla by settlers from Rhodes. Two rock tombs with Lycian inscriptions date from the 4th century. Alexander the Great's army made a stopover here before reaching the winter camp at Phaselis in 333 BC. In Hellenistic times Rhodiapolis belonged to the Lycian League and minted its own coins, as was once again the case during the Roman Empire under Gordian III.

Below the theatre there is a boulevard, next to it a Roman bath. The town was supplied with water from the northwest by an aqueduct. The necropolis with many Roman tombs is located north, northeast and east of the city. Some buildings and underground cisterns were built in the early Byzantine period. From the seventh century onwards, there are no traces of settlement, and it is not known why the town was abandoned.

At the top of the hill there are the remains of a lookout tower, probably built in the Ptolemaic period. Immediately below is the well-preserved theatre, built between the first century BC and the beginning of the first century AD. It was damaged and repaired during the severe earthquake of 141 AD. The tomb monument of the Opramoas of Rhodiapolis in front of the theatre lists in a long inscription its financial aid in numerous cities of Lycia. In particular, he had the damage of the earthquake of 141 repaired with large sums of money.

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