Photo: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (CC BY 2.0)
A self-guided audio guide to the temple precinct of Hathor at Dendera, north of Qena: 27 narrated stops along about 900 metres, from the Roman gateway into the Temple of Hathor's columned hall and its blue astronomical ceiling, through the inner halls to the sanctuary, down to the crypts and up the stairs to the roof chapels of Osiris and the cast of the circular zodiac, whose original is in the Louvre. Then out around the back to the relief of Cleopatra VII and Caesarion, the Temple of Isis, the sacred lake, the sanatorium and the two birth houses with the Christian basilica between them. The crypts, stairs and roof are told 'when open'; access to them varies.
27 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 5 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 2 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Gate of Domitian and Trajan, Dendera Temple Complex.
Temple of Hathor, Large Hypostyle Hall, Small Hypostyle Hall, Laboratory, Hall of Offerings, Wabet and New Year court, Hall of the Ennead, Great Seat and main sanctuary, Corridor of the Mysteries and the chapels around the sanctuary, Crypts, Southern crypt with the Dendera light reliefs, Stairways to the roof, New Year kiosk on the roof, Western Osiris chapels on the roof, Roof chapels of Osiris, Eastern Osiris chapels on the roof, Circular Dendera zodiac, Lion-headed waterspouts of the Temple of Hathor, Relief of Cleopatra VII and Caesarion, Temple of Isis, Sacred lake.
Sanatorium, Older mammisi of Nectanebo I, Coptic Basilica, Roman mammisi.
The deep-blue ceiling where the sky goddess Nut stretches across the hall, above columns crowned with the faces of Hathor.
A cast of the circular zodiac whose original was cut out in 1821 and is now in the Louvre in Paris.
The lotus-and-serpent reliefs nicknamed the Dendera light, told as Egyptologists read them, when the crypts are open.
A contemporary relief of Cleopatra VII with her son Caesarion, shown as an adult pharaoh, on the temple's rear wall.
The rooftop kiosk where Hathor's statue was brought out to meet the rising sun at the New Year.
Where the sick bathed in sacred water and slept in small cubicles, hoping for healing dreams.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 27 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 27 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Dendera — Hathor's Temple, the Zodiac and the Birth Houses, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
27 narration points, including Dendera Temple Complex, Temple of Hathor, Large Hypostyle Hall, Great Seat and main sanctuary and Crypts. That is about 33 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1½–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 27 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.