The town is located by the southern slopes of the main range of Crimean Mountains at the base of Mount Kosh-Kaya, 18 kilometers (11 mi) west from Yalta.

[1] There are prehistoric dolmens and fortifications nearby; in the Middle Ages the area was under the control of the Byzantine Empire, which built a fortified monastery in the vicinity (and may have given the town its name).

[citation needed] After the October Revolution, Simeiz was nationalized and public sanatoriums were created, mainly specializing in tuberculosis.

[citation needed] During World War II, the Germans occupied Simeiz beginning on November 8, 1941, causing much death and destruction; the town was liberated by the Red Army on April 16, 1944.

[2] On May 18, 1944, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered the beginning of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars across the entire peninsula, including Simeiz.

As a result, the Crimean Tatars, an indigenous people of Crimea, were exiled to Central Asia under the grounds of allegedly collaborating with Nazi Germany.

However, after Russia's takeover of the peninsula in 2014, the new occupation government enforced homophobic policies in Crimea, largely destroying the vibrant gay scene.