Labranda
A mountain sanctuary of Zeus above Milas, the ancestral shrine of the Carian ruler Mausolus and his family.
The Turkish name
Labranda
At a glance
- Province
- Muğla, Milas (near Ortaköy)
- Dedicated to
- Zeus Labraundos
- Excavations
- Since 1948
Read more
This page was written from these sources.
- Labraunda ↗Wikipedia · Checked 2026-09-23
The story
Labranda, also written Labraunda, is a sanctuary in the Carian mountains about 5 km west of Ortaköy in Milas district. It was sacred to the Carians, and its god was a local Zeus who held a double-headed axe, the labrys. A sacred road about 15 km long linked it to Mylasa, today's Milas.
In the 4th century BC Mausolus and his brother Idrieus, of the Hekatomnid family, rebuilt it on a series of terraces. Remains include a temple of Zeus, marble gateways, halls known as andrones, stoas, baths and a tomb. Swedish archaeologists began excavating the site in 1948.
