Photo: Vadimph (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Magnesia on the Maeander, from the sanctuary of Artemis to the agora and then south across the fields to the theatre and the stadium. It starts at the Temple of Artemis Leukophryene, the pseudodipteral temple of the architect Hermogenes, whose frieze of Greeks fighting Amazons was divided between Paris, Berlin and Istanbul, and its great altar, then passes through the propylon, the ceremonial gate between sanctuary and agora, to a marble-finished latrine for thirty-two people. In the agora, on whose walls the Magnesians carved some eighty letters and decrees recognising their city as sacred and inviolable, stand the podium of the temple of Zeus Sosipolis and the market basilica, whose capitals carry Scylla; the originals are in the Aydın Archaeological Museum. Among the ruins is the fifteenth-century Çerkez Musa Mosque, from the city's last chapter. The walk ends at the Lethaios gymnasium, the theatre excavated by Carl Humann's team in 1890 to 1893 and covered again, the stadium, estimated to have held some thirty thousand spectators, with its 129 carved trophy reliefs, and the City Gymnasium. Kuşadası's cruise pier is about half an hour away by road; if time ashore is short, the ship's own excursion is the safer choice.
12 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 · 14 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 5 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.
Temple of Artemis Leukophryene, Altar of Artemis Leukophryene, Propylon, Latrine.
Agora, Temple of Zeus Sosipolis, Market Basilica, Çerkez Musa Mosque.
Lethaios Gymnasion, Theatre, Stadium, City Gymnasium.
Hermogenes' pseudodipteral temple, eight columns by fifteen on a platform about 67 by 41 metres, named twice by Vitruvius.
The great altar before the temple's west face, with holes in the marble paving that held the iron rings where animals were tied.
The marble gateway between agora and sanctuary, with one Ionic column rebuilt to its full height of 7.23 metres.
One of the largest marketplaces of its time, whose walls carried some eighty letters and decrees recognising the city as sacred and inviolable.
A two-storey covered market hall whose pillar capitals are carved with Scylla, the sea monster of Homer's Odyssey.
A stadium of the 1st century AD, estimated to have held thirty thousand spectators, with 129 carved trophy reliefs along its podium.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 12 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. 12 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 Magnesia on the Maeander — Hermogenes's Temple of Artemis, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
12 narration points, including Temple of Artemis Leukophryene, Temple of Zeus Sosipolis, Altar of Artemis Leukophryene, Propylon and Latrine. That is about 10 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 ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 12 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.