Photo: Richard Mortel (CC BY 2.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Paestum, through the fenced archaeological area from the southern temples to the Temple of Athena, across the road to the museum and out to the gates in the walls, reached on foot or by car. It starts at the Basilica, the first temple of Hera, built by about 540 BC in Poseidonia, the city Greek settlers from Sybaris founded around 600 BC, which the Lucanians took over and Rome made a Latin colony in 273 BC. Beside it stand the Second Temple of Hera, long called the Temple of Neptune, with its inner double rows of columns, and the altars where the rituals took place. Through the Roman houses the walk reaches the forum, the Comitium cut by the Temple of Mens Bona, the amphitheatre halved by the modern road, the Greek Ekklesiasterion, the underground Heroon of around 510 BC and the Via Sacra with its wheel ruts. Then come the Temple of Athena of around 500 BC on its artificial hill, the twelfth-century church of the Santissima Annunziata, and the museum with the Tomb of the Diver, found in 1968. It ends at the Porta Sirena, the Porta Giustizia and the Porta Marina.
16 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 · 15 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.
Basilica (First Temple of Hera), Second Temple of Hera, The Southern Sanctuary and Its Altars, Roman Houses, Roman Forum, Comitium and the Temple of Mens Bona.
Amphitheatre, Ekklesiasterion, The Heroon, the Underground Shrine, Via Sacra.
Temple of Athena, Church of the Santissima Annunziata, National Archaeological Museum and the Tomb of the Diver, Porta Sirena, Porta Giustizia, Porta Marina.
The Archaic Doric temple of around 540 BC, almost certainly Hera's, with nine heavy, slightly swollen columns on each short side.
The Doric temple of around 460 to 450 BC, long misnamed for Neptune, whose inner double rows of columns still stand.
The circular stepped assembly place of the Roman forum, cut into by the podium of a 2nd-century BCE temple of Mens Bona.
A half-buried chamber of around 510 BC linked to the city's legendary founder, where bronze vases, an amphora and iron spits were found.
The temple of around 500 BC on an artificial hill, Doric outside with Ionic capitals in its porch, later closed and used for Christian burials.
The museum of Poseidonia-Paestum, where the five painted slabs of the Tomb of the Diver, found by Mario Napoli in 1968, are shown with its lyre.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 16 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. 16 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 Paestum — the Greek Temples of Poseidonia, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
16 narration points, including Basilica (First Temple of Hera), Second Temple of Hera, Roman Forum, Temple of Athena and National Archaeological Museum and the Tomb of the Diver. That is about 20 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 ~3 hours with the gates total, but you walk at your own pace. 16 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.