Walk a Greek Ionian city that became the second city of the Roman Empire — home to Saint Paul, Saint John, and according to tradition the final years of the Virgin Mary. From the marble-paved Curetes Street to the soaring façade of the Library of Celsus to the Terrace Houses where you walk over preserved Roman frescoes on glass walkways. Grounded in Strabo's Geography, Pliny's Natural History, and Pausanias.
Every stop traces back to primary archaeological and heritage records. Not AI-generated guesses. Here's how each narration gets built.
Each stop pulls from OpenStreetMap · 59 features in this old town (the open mapping database used by Apple Maps and Tesla), Wikidata · 53 cross-referenced entries (the peer-reviewed structured-data project), the heritage authority below, and primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut · Austrian excavation at Ephesus since 1895.
Every sentence is checked against the verified sources above. Anything that can't be supported gets cut.
Tier-1 stops trace back to specific passages in Strabo's Geography, Book 14, cited per stop.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
The Odeon, the Bouleuterion, the Prytaneion, the State Agora — where the Roman city governed itself. Plus the Marble Street that begins the spine of the tour.
The famous marble-paved avenue that descends from the upper city. Hadrian's Temple, the Fountain of Trajan, Hercules Gate, Memmius Monument, and the Library of Celsus at the foot. The Terrace Houses open off to the right.
The 25,000-seat Great Theatre where Saint Paul preached, the Marble Road that links it to the library, and the wide Arcadiane stretching west toward the silted-up Roman harbour.
The two-storey façade was reassembled in the 1970s and 1980s from fallen blocks. Four statues stand in the niches — Wisdom, Knowledge, Virtue, and Friendship. Celsus's tomb is in a vault behind the wall.
The largest theatre in Asia Minor. Saint Paul preached here against the silversmiths of Artemis (Acts 19) — the riot is one of the best-attested events in the early Christian record. You walk down into the orchestra and up the seating.
You enter the protective structure and walk through Roman elite homes on glass walkways above preserved mosaic floors, frescoes, and marble revetments. The best-preserved Roman domestic interiors anywhere in the empire.
Pliny called it the most magnificent building in the world. Today a single reconstructed column rises from the marshy foundations. Pausanias visited; Strabo described its construction history; Saint Paul's preaching emptied its workshops.
The tomb of Saint John the Apostle is preserved at the centre of the basilica's nave on Ayasuluk hill. Justinian's reconstruction made it one of the largest churches of the Byzantine era. The remaining walls and the marble pavement of the tomb survive.
A small stone chapel above Ephesus, identified in the 19th century from the visions of the mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich. Tradition holds that Mary lived her final years here, accompanied by Saint John. A pilgrimage site under modern papal endorsement.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 61 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each narration connects what you can see today to the ancient sources — Strabo's Geography, Pliny on the Artemision, Paul in Acts, Pausanias on the Wonders — and to the modern excavations of the Austrian Archaeological Institute.
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.
From the Library of Celsus façade to the Terrace House frescoes to the marble pavement of Saint John's tomb. Major landmarks get deep dives. Fountains, gates, and minor buildings get concise narrations woven into the walk.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
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.
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 ~4-5 hours audio total, but you walk at your own pace. 61 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Your access lasts 30 days from purchase, so revisit as often as you like.
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.
The narrations draw on three ancient sources and on modern archaeology. Strabo's Geography, Book 14, gives the most detailed surviving classical description of the city. Pliny the Elder's Natural History, Book 36, documents the construction and rebuildings of the Temple of Artemis. Pausanias visited and refers to Ephesian Artemis cult and architecture across his work. The Acts of the Apostles (chapter 19) records Paul's preaching at the Great Theatre. Where these sources are silent or the structures post-date them (the Library of Celsus, the Terrace Houses, the Justinianic Basilica of St John), the narration draws on modern consensus from the Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut (Austrian Archaeological Institute), which has excavated continuously at Ephesus since 1895.