Photo: KAMINSKA JOANNA (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio tour of the plain of Marathon, made by car with a short walk at each stop. It starts at the Archaeological Museum at Vrana, built in 1975 among the monuments it explains: the prehistoric tumuli excavated by Spyridon Marinatos in 1969 and 1970, the mound identified as the grave of the Plataeans who fought beside the Athenians, and a Mycenaean tholos tomb with a chamber seven metres across. On the plain it visits the Early Bronze Age cemetery of Tsepi, the oldest burial place on the tour, the Soros, the grave of the Athenians who died in 490 BC, where Herodotus's account of the battle is told, the Bronze Age settlement of Plasi, and the sanctuary of the Egyptian gods that Herodes Atticus founded around AD 160 at Brexiza. In the north-east come the modern replica of the marble trophy column that marked the victory and the Great Marsh of Schinias, beside which the Persians camped. The tour ends in the town of Marathon at the Marathon Run Museum, in a school built in 1908, and at the Tower of Oinoe, a medieval tower of around 1250 whose corners are built of reused ancient marble.
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 (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 11 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.
Archaeological Museum of Marathon, The Prehistoric Tumuli at Vrana, Tumulus of the Plataeans, Tholos Tomb of Marathon.
Early Helladic Cemetery of Tsepi, The Soros, Tomb of the Athenians, Plasi Prehistoric Settlement, Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Brexiza.
The Trophy, The Great Marsh of Schinias, Marathon Run Museum, The Tower of Oinoe.
The smaller mound identified as the grave of the Plataeans, who marched their whole army to Marathon to stand beside Athens.
A Mycenaean beehive tomb, its round chamber seven metres across, found in 1933 and 1934.
The mound in the middle of the plain over the Athenians who died at Marathon in 490 BC.
The sanctuary Herodes Atticus founded around AD 160, set on an artificial island in the Small Marsh.
A modern replica, by a chapel, of the marble column the Athenians raised to mark their victory.
A medieval tower of around 1250 whose corners reuse large marble blocks from an ancient funerary monument.
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 Marathon — the Battlefield of 490 BC, 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 The Soros, Tomb of the Athenians, Archaeological Museum of Marathon, The Prehistoric Tumuli at Vrana, Tumulus of the Plataeans and Tholos Tomb of Marathon. That is about 14 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 ~2–3 hours by car 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.