For centuries Finike, then named Phoenicus, was a trading port, the main port of Limyra, the capital city of Lycia. Phoenicus was said to have been founded by Phoenicians in the 5th Century BC, and thus named after its founders.
The area has been inhabited for much longer than that; archaeologists have found evidence near the town of Elmalı showing that the Teke peninsula has been settled since 3000 BC (although on the coast nothing has been uncovered dating before 2000 BC).
Trade along the coast was established first by the Persians, who relinquished Lycia to the armiesofAlexander the Great. However, the coast was always vulnerable to forces from Syria, Egypt andRhodes until it was brought within the empire of the Ancient Romans and the succeedingByzantines. Even then the Byzantines were threatened by the Arabian armies coming from the Arabian Peninsula. Eventually the area was lost to the Seljuk Turks in the 13th century. These were succeeded by the Ottoman Empire from 1426
