Photo: Clément Bardot (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Walk the oldest city in France. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded Massalia on this harbour around 600 BC, and almost nothing of their city is visible above ground — the excavated port lies sunk below street level at the Jardin des Vestiges. Above it stand the layers that followed: Le Panier's medieval lanes, Pierre Puget's Vieille Charité, the forts Louis XIV built with their guns turned on the city rather than the sea, and MuCEM on the harbour mouth.
54 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 · 112 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 97 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.
The Lacydon the Phocaeans sailed into, the Roman docks with their storage jars still in place, and the quarry that cut the stone for the Greek city.
The hill the Greek city stood on, now the oldest quarter — the Vieille Charité, the Hôtel de Cabre that was moved and turned ninety degrees, and the cathedral half demolished for its successor.
The fortress whose guns faced the city rather than the sea, the abbey founded beside a martyr's tomb, and the museum now standing at the harbour mouth.
The Lacydon inlet the Phocaeans rowed into around 600 BC. It has been a working harbour ever since — the longest continuously used port in France.
Louis XIV built it after Marseille revolted, and had its cannon pointed at the city. It is now joined to MuCEM by a footbridge over the harbour mouth.
Pierre Puget's workhouse for the poor, a colonnaded courtyard around an oval-domed chapel. Rediscovered in the twentieth century and now two museums.
Founded beside the tomb of a martyr, with a crypt older than almost anything above ground in the city.
The striped Byzantine-Revival cathedral built beside the Romanesque one it replaced — and the older church was half demolished to make room.
The limestone hill above the city, crowned by a gilded Virgin, with the walls inside hung with sailors' votive offerings.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 54 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 — history, architecture, and the stories behind them. 54 narration points across the Vieux-Port, Le Panier and the harbour forts.
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 significant point around the old port and the hill above it. The great monuments get deep dives; the chapels and small museums get focused stories.
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 ~113 minutes total, but you walk at your own pace. 54 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.