The site amid its sacred plane trees [1] was enriched in the Hellenistic style by the Hecatomnid dynasty of Mausolus, satrap (and virtual king) of Persian Caria (c. 377 – 352 BCE), and also later by his successor and brother Idrieus; Labranda was the dynasty's ancestral sacred shrine.

The first occurrence of "labrys" in English (1901) noted by the OED concerns this sanctuary:[4]It seems natural to interpret names of Carian sanctuaries like Labranda in the most literal sense as the place of the sacred labrys, which was the Lydian (or Carian) name for the Greek πέλεκυς, or double-edged axe.The same root labr- appears in the labyrinth of Knossos, which is interpreted as the "place of the axe."

The Swedish Institute at Athens has been in charge of archeology at Labraunda, notably in a series of campaigns in 1948-53, initiated by Axel W. Persson and taken up, after the latter's sudden death, by Gösta Säflund, has published its findings in a long series, grouped as four volumes, from 1955 onwards.

The Ionic temple of Zeus[13] bore a dedicatory inscription of the brother of Mausolus, Idrieus (351-44 BCE);[14] it had a simplified, two-part architrave, and a low ceiling to the small cella.

As of 2018, the site was being excavated by an international team led by archaeologists Olivier Henry and Ömür Dünya Çakmaklı.