Besides the cultivation of olives, the settlement here of the Cappadocian king Archelaus during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus played a role in the development of the city.

Towards the end of the 3rd century AD, however, its importance began to wane, owing in large part to incursions by the Sassanian King Shapur I in 260 and later by the Isaurians.

The ancient sources tell the history of city's existence and how the churches and basilicas survived into the late Roman and early Byzantine periods.

The island that was the site of the first settlement here, where excavations have been underway since 1995 headed by Italian archeologist Eugenia Equini Schneider, is almost completely buried under sand.

A large bath complex among the lemon groves between the temple and the agora was built by a technique characteristic of the ancient Roman period and little used in Anatolia.