The Roman theatre of Tlos, which stands freely in a plain, was built around the turn of time according to an inscription found, presumably under the Roman emperor Augustus (31 BC - 14 AD). As recently discovered during the excavations of the Limyra Theatre, the cavea of the Tlos Theatre was erected on a vaulted structure with a circumferential vault, similar to that of the Side Theatre. The stage house has been completely destroyed. The theatre, like the entire city and several other cities of the Lycian League, was destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 141 AD. The Euerget Opramoas of Rhodiapolis also donated a considerable sum for the reconstruction of the theatre of Tlos.

Tlos was already inhabited in the Bronze Age and should be identical with the place Dalawa mentioned in Hittite sources. A bronze axe found there indicates origins dating back to the 2nd millennium BC.
In Lycian times the place was called Tlava, as coin finds prove. The town was one of the six largest towns in the Lycian League and had triple voting rights. Although the town was a bishop's seat in Byzantine times, its importance declined. Tlos was, along with Olympos, Myra, Xanthos, Patara and Pinara, one of the initially six largest cities in the Lycian League and, like them, had three votes.
The present ruins date from the Lycian, Roman and Byzantine periods. The last inglorious highlight in the 19th century was the construction of a winter residence and barracks in fortress construction on the old ruins of the Acropolis by the robber Kanlı Ali Ağa.