In antiquity the land Ortaca stands on lay inside Caria. Alexander of Macedon took Caria in 334 BC, and with it the territory of Ortaca passed to the Macedonians.
Afterwards the district spent a period under Egyptian rule, as part of the Mediterranean and Aegean coast held by Cleopatra.
Roman rule began in 192 BC.
The Turkish period opens with Manzikert. On 26 August 1071 the Turkish armies under Alp Arslan defeated and scattered the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes and his two hundred thousand men, and the gates of Anatolia opened to the Turks. With that Ortaca, like the rest of Anatolia outside İstanbul, left the borders of the Eastern Roman empire. Dalyan, the rock tombs of Kaunos, the İztuzu beach and the Köyceğiz lake shore each have their own page below.