Anemurium was already in existence in the Hellenistic period. In AD 52, it was besieged by a local tribe, known as the Cietae, led by Troxobor, but Antiochus IV of Commagene broke the siege and after executing Troxobor and a few of the leading chieftains, pardoned the rest. It was under threat from a similar quarter in 382. Coins from its mint survive from the time of Antiochus IV of Commagene to Valerian. In 260, it was captured by the Sasanians, an event that sent Anemurium into decline for many decades, but it continued to be prosperous until the mid-7th century when it was more or less completely abandoned, probably because the Arab occupation of Cyprus made the coast unsafe.
The ruins of Anemurium were mentioned by Francis Beaufort, an English naval captain who explored the south coast of Turkey in 1811-12 and who published his discoveries in Karamania. Excavations were directed by Elizabeth Alfoldi, University of Toronto, and subsequently James Russell, University of British Columbia, along with Hector Williams and his wife Caroline. The upper city or acropolis occupies the actual cape, and is described in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites as protected on three sides by steep cliffs and on the landward side by a wall with towers and zigzag reentrants. These fortifications and the building inside were constructed in medieval times, in part utilizing Hellenistic elements. The lower town to the north of the citadel extended for at least 1500 m to an area now covered with sand dunes and with a width of 400 m between the eastern seawall and an aqueduct on the west. The discovered remains include a large theatre, a small covered odeon or bouleuterion, three large public baths and one small one, decorated with mosaic floors, four early Christian churches, and an exedra possibly of a civil basilica. Outside, there is an extensive necropolis of some 350 sepulchral monuments dating from the 1st to the early 4th century. Some included several rooms, a second storey, and even an inner courtyard. Some were decorated with mosaics and wall paintings, including one representing the four seasons and a dining couple. Nearby Mamure Castle, built by the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia on the foundations of a Roman castle, fell into Turkish hands in 1221.
