Photo: Geraki (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Mytilene on Lesbos, from the southern harbour through the old town and up to the castle, down to the northern harbour and up to the ancient theatre, with the Roman aqueduct at Moria a short drive away at the end. It starts at the church of Agios Therapon and the Byzantine and Ecclesiastical Museum, founded in 1958, and visits Sappho Square, where her statue holds a lyre, Ermou Street, the old market street that runs where a channel once divided the town, and the cathedral of Agios Athanasios, built around 1600. In the Ottoman market quarter come the Yeni Mosque and the Çarşı Hamam of around 1826, then the Sanctuary of Cybele, the New Archaeological Museum of 1995, the Statue of Liberty cast in Germany in 1922, and the castle on the ancient acropolis, where the walk tells of the revolt of 428 BC and the Athenian debate over the city's fate, with the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore inside its walls. By the northern harbour it visits the sanctuary of Apollo Maloeis, the Valide Mosque of 1780 and the Roman House of Menander, named for its mosaics, then climbs to the Hellenistic theatre, with 64 rows of seats cut into the hill, and ends at the bridge of the aqueduct that brought water more than 24 kilometres to the city.
17 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 · 101 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 12 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.
Church of Agios Therapon, Byzantine and Ecclesiastical Museum of Mytilene, Sappho Square, Ermou Street, Cathedral of Agios Athanasios.
Yeni Mosque, Çarşı Hamam, Sanctuary of Cybele, New Archaeological Museum, Statue of Liberty, Castle of Mytilene, Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore.
Sanctuary of Apollo Maloeis, Valide Mosque, House of Menander, Ancient Theatre of Mytilene, Roman Aqueduct of Moria.
The waterfront square with a statue of Sappho holding a lyre, the instrument her songs were sung to.
The old market street that runs from harbour to harbour along a vanished channel about 700 metres long.
The Ottoman market bath of around 1826, laid out as a procession from the cold room through to the hot rooms.
The castle on the ancient acropolis between the two harbours, where the story of the revolt of 428 BC is told.
The Hellenistic theatre among the pines, its 64 rows of seats cut into the soft volcanic rock of the hill.
The bridge that carried the aqueduct over a valley on its route of more than 24 kilometres from Mount Olympos.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 17 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. 17 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 Mytilene — the Castle, the Harbour and the Old Town, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
17 narration points, including Church of Agios Therapon, Yeni Mosque, Castle of Mytilene, Ancient Theatre of Mytilene and Byzantine and Ecclesiastical Museum of Mytilene. That is about 17 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 total, but you walk at your own pace. 17 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.