Photo: George E. Koronaios (CC0)
Walk the sanctuary where Greeks went to dream their cure. Pilgrims slept in the Abaton, the long incubation hall, and Asklepios appeared in their dreams prescribing treatment — sometimes a herb, sometimes a snake, sometimes surgery. Inscribed stelae from the sanctuary record the miraculous cures by name. The Theatre, which Pausanias calls the most beautiful in Greece, is acoustically perfect: a coin dropped on the orchestra is audible from the top row. Every narration traces to Pausanias's Description of Greece, Book 2, chapters 26-29.
21 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? Download on wi-fi before you set off — keep the screen open while it saves — then add it to your home screen so you can find it again. It works in airplane mode, with no roaming charges. Show me how to save it →
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 · 23 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 10 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Ephorate of Antiquities of Argolida · Greek Ministry of Culture, Asclepieion excavation programme.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
The major stops trace back to specific passages in Pausanias's Description of Greece, Book 2, chapters 26-29, cited stop by stop.
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.
Pausanias calls it the most beautiful theatre in Greece. 14,000 seats cut into a natural hillside. A coin dropped on the orchestra is audible from the top row — the acoustics are still considered the finest of any open-air theatre anywhere. Walk down into the orchestra and stand on the centre stone.
The Temple of Asklepios with its lost chryselephantine cult statue, the Tholos that Pausanias attributes to Polykleitos the Younger, the Abaton where pilgrims slept awaiting healing dreams, the Hestiatorion where ritual banquets were held.
The Stadium where the four-yearly Asklepieia games were held, the Greek Baths, the Gymnasium, the Palaestra. Athletic competition was an integral part of the healing cult — physical training as preventive medicine.
14,000 seats, 55 rows, divided by 21 staircases. Pausanias 2.27.5 names it the most beautiful theatre in Greece. The acoustics are legendary — partly the limestone seats (which filter low-frequency wind noise), partly the perfect geometric design. Modern productions are still staged here every summer.
A circular building of dazzling complexity — outer Doric colonnade of 26 columns, inner Corinthian colonnade of 14, three concentric subterranean rings beneath the floor. Pausanias 2.27.3 calls it the 'thymele' and attributes it to Polykleitos the Younger. Its purpose remains debated: ritual chthonic cult, sacred-snake chamber, or simply a votive showpiece.
Doric peripteral temple housing the chryselephantine cult statue of Asklepios — gold robe and ivory flesh, the god seated with a snake-entwined staff. Pausanias 2.27.2 describes the statue in detail. Only the foundations and a few column drums survive; the statue itself disappeared in late antiquity.
Long colonnaded stoa where pilgrims slept awaiting healing dreams from Asklepios. Inscribed stelae from this site record by name the cures the pilgrims received — including detailed accounts of dreams in which the god prescribed surgery, herbs, or a sacred-snake encounter. The stelae are now in the Epidaurus museum.
Site of the Asklepieia, a Pan-Hellenic athletic festival held every four years to honour Asklepios. The track is 181 metres long with original stone start- and finish-line slabs in place. Stone seats line the slope on one side; the opposite side is the natural hillside.
A massive square pilgrim hostel — four storeys, 160 rooms arranged around four interior courtyards. Among the largest known Greek-period accommodation buildings. The foundation outline is preserved over an area larger than a modern football pitch.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 21 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each narration traces back to a specific passage in Pausanias's Description of Greece, Book 2, chapters 26-29, which cover the sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus in detail. Where Pausanias is silent (the Roman additions, the museum's holdings), the narration draws on modern consensus from the Archaeological Society at Athens, which has excavated continuously at the sanctuary since 1881.
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 Theatre's perfect acoustics to the Tholos's three subterranean rings to the inscribed cure-stelae of the Abaton. Major monuments get deep dives. Lesser sanctuaries and athletic buildings get concise narrations.
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.
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 ~2 hours audio total, but you walk at your own pace. 21 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.
Each Epidaurus narration traces back to a specific passage in Pausanias's Description of Greece, Book 2, chapters 26-29 — the chapters devoted to the sanctuary of Asklepios. Pausanias describes the Temple of Asklepios with its chryselephantine cult statue (2.27.2), the Tholos which he calls 'thymele' and attributes to Polykleitos the Younger (2.27.3), the Abaton incubation hall, and the inscribed stelae recording the cures. The Theatre is at 2.27.5 — Pausanias calls it the most beautiful in Greece. Pausanias's 2nd-century AD eyewitness account has been the foundation of Epidaurus scholarship for 1,800 years. Where Pausanias is silent (the Roman Odeon, the Hellenistic Stoa, the Katagogion's full extent), the narration draws on modern excavation publications from the Archaeological Society at Athens, which has excavated continuously at the sanctuary since 1881 under Panagiotis Kavvadias and his successors.
GPS-triggered audio tours for heritage sites worldwide.