The name of the city allegedly goes back to Nysa, an otherwise unknown wife of Antiochos' I., or can rather be traced back to Nysa, the nurse of Dionysos. In ancient times, Nysa was considered one of the places where Dionysus was said to have been brought up. It is unclear whether the city was created by Synoikismos (merging several villages into one city) of Athymbra with the two neighbouring towns of Athymbrada and Hydrela. Since the 3rd century B.C. it was Seleukidic. The name Nysa was used since the 2nd century BC.

In the imperial period Nysa was known as a centre of scholarship, the historian Strabon was educated here around 50 BC. From Nysa came the Stoic Apollonios and the homerphilologist Menekrates. In late antiquity, Nysa was a bishop's seat in the Eparchia Asia.

The well-preserved ancient theatre was built in the late Hellenistic and early imperial period and was extended in two further construction phases in the 2nd century AD. The scenae frons is decorated with scenes from Dionysos' childhood history. Furthermore, a Buleuterion, a Gymnasion, thermal baths, the Agora and an imperial library building have been preserved.

SNysa owes its imperial prosperity to the sanctuary of Pluton 4 km to the west and the Kore in Acharaka with its famous sulphur springs.

The city is divided into two parts by a stream gorge. Of archaeological remains, the bridge at Nysa is particularly noteworthy, an approximately 100-metre-long superstructure of the deep stream gorge, which served as a substructure for the theatre forecourt and is considered to be the second longest of its kind in ancient times.

In front of the late Hellenistic-Roman theatre on the left side of the gorge are the still unexcavated remains of an "amphitheatre". Only a few rows of seats, mostly overgrown by grass, have survived. According to the latest findings, however, the oval ground plan is a stadium.

The Nymphäum

In the 1960s, excavations were carried out at the theatre and the Bouleuterion by the museum of İzmir. From 1982-1988 the museum of Aydın expanded the excavations in the theatre. A team from Ankara University has been digging and reconstructing at various sites since 1990. The library has been excavated by archaeologists from the University of Freiburg since 2002.