Photo: Joyofmuseums (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Pella, the capital of the Macedonian kingdom and the birthplace of Philip the Second and Alexander the Great, visited in parts on foot or by car: the museum, the open site with the agora and the houses, and the palace hill above. It starts in the museum with the city's story, from the move of the royal seat from Aigai to the Roman conquest of 168 or 167 BC and the earthquake of around 90 BC, then the pebble mosaics of the late fourth century BC, among them Dionysos riding a panther and the stag hunt signed by Gnosis, and the finds from the agora and the cemeteries. On the open site come the agora built under Cassander, a square of about 260 by 238 metres, the sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods and Aphrodite, seen from outside, the House of Dionysos and the House of the Abduction of Helen, whose Helen mosaic still lies in place under a shelter. It ends at the public baths with their underfloor heating, the palace of the Macedonian kings on its terraces, with its palaestra and swimming pool, and the Thesmophorion of Demeter and Persephone.
10 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 · 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.
Archaeological Museum of Pella, Museum: the Mosaics, Museum: the Cemeteries and the Agora Finds.
Agora of Pella, Sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods and Aphrodite, House of Dionysos, House of the Abduction of Helen.
Ancient Baths, Palace of Pella, Thesmophorion.
Pebble floors of the late fourth century BC from Pella's great houses, among them Dionysos on a panther and the stag hunt signed by Gnosis.
The market and civic heart built under Cassander, a square of about 260 by 238 metres whose shops were buried with their goods by the earthquake of around 90 BC.
A great private house of about 3,160 square metres with two courtyards and banqueting rooms, where the Dionysos mosaic left an empty space in the floor.
The house whose mosaic of the abduction of Helen still lies in place, and where the signed stag hunt once lay in the next room.
The palace of the Macedonian kings on terraces up the hill, with its oldest buildings from the reign of Philip the Second and a palaestra with a swimming pool.
A sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone cut into the bedrock, with a central altar and about twenty pits that held offerings of piglets, sheep and goats.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 10 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. 10 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 Pella — Alexander's Capital: the Agora, the Houses and the Palace, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
10 narration points, including Archaeological Museum of Pella, Museum: the Mosaics, Museum: the Cemeteries and the Agora Finds, Sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods and Aphrodite and House of the Abduction of Helen. 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. 10 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.