It is the third-most populated district of the province after Merkezefendi and Pamukkale and is situated on a plain to the northeast of the city of Denizli, being actually closer to the neighboring provincial seat of Uşak.

Thus Çivril has a number of wealthy citizens living abroad or in Istanbul and in summer is populated with returning families for holiday.

During an excavation carried out by the British archaeologists Prof. Seton Lloyd and Prof. James Mellaart between 1953 and 1959 at Beycehöyük, 6 km (4 mi) south of the town of Çivril, several artefacts dating back to the Copper Age (circa 3000 BC) were found.

It is assumed that the relics of raiders and chariots in mounds and on rocks found at Yavuzca farm, 20 km (12 mi) from Çivril, date back to the Phrygians in whose time the most notable settlement here was called Eumeneia.

A village in Hüdavendigâr vilayet depending from Sandıklı until the 1880s, Çivril gained importance once it became the terminus of a branch of the İzmir-Dinar railway which reached here in 1889.

The ancient and as yet superficially explored city of Eumeneia is located on the shore of Lake Işıklı near Çivril and the locality is arranged into a recreational area.