The district of Gazipaşa stands on a narrow strip of coast between the Mediterranean Sea and the high Taurus Mountains rising steeply behind (highest point the 2253m "Deliktaş".

Gazipaşa has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa),[4] with very hot, dry summers, and mild winters with heavy rain.

The Ancient Greek city of Selinus was established here on the River Kestros (today called Hacımusa) by 628 BC, as part of the kingdom of Cilicia.

In 197 BC the area passed into the hands of the Ancient Romans, and in the 2nd century AD the Emperor Trajan died here after falling ill while journeying along the Mediterranean coast.

During the area of the Anatolian beyliks the coast including Selinti was controlled by the Karamanid clan of Konya and was brought into the Ottoman Empire in 1472 by Gedik Ahmet Pasha, naval commander of Sultan Mehmet II.

The 17th century traveller Evliya Çelebi records Selinti as a group of 26 villages, with a well-kept mosque on the seafront along with a jetty for boats to Cyprus, and green mountains behind.

Archaeological research continues and in 2004 a team from Florida State University found a small bronze statue of Pegasus dating back to 300 BC in the waters off Gazipaşa; it is now in the Museum of Alanya.