Photo: Roy Egloff (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Selçuk: through the halls of the Ephesus Archaeological Museum, out to the site of the Temple of Artemis and up to the İsa Bey Mosque at the foot of Ayasuluk hill, with the village of Şirince a short drive into the hills. The museum, whose first section opened in 1964, holds some 64,000 objects; its halls show two statues of Artemis Ephesia facing each other, the Polyphemus group from the fountain of Domitian, Augustus and Livia from the cult of the emperors, and the portraits and ivory frieze of the Terrace Houses. In a marshy field stood the temple counted among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world; a single column, put back together in modern times from drums that do not match, marks it, and west of it lay the great altar. The walk ends at the İsa Bey Hamam of the Aydınid town and the İsa Bey Mosque, whose inscription names its architect, Ali of Damascus, before the drive to Şirince and its church of St John the Baptist, built in 1805. The ruins of Ephesus have their own tour. Cruise ships berth at Kuşadası, a drive away; if time ashore is short, the ship's own excursion is the safer choice.
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 · 50 features in this old town (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.
Ephesus Archaeological Museum, Hall of Artemis Ephesia, Fountain Finds Hall, Imperial Cult Hall, Hall of Terrace House Finds.
Artemision, The Column of the Artemision, Altar of the Artemision, İsa Bey Hamam.
İsa Bey Mosque, Şirince, Church of St John the Baptist, Şirince.
A darkened hall built for two statues of Artemis of Ephesus facing each other, among them the Colossal Artemis of the 1st century AD.
Sculpture from the city's great fountains, including the Polyphemus group from the fountain of Domitian.
Augustus and Livia with crosses cut into their foreheads, and the head and arm of a colossal emperor from the Temple of Domitian.
The marshy field where the temple counted among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world stood, once on the shore of the Gulf of Ephesus.
A single column put back together in modern times from marble drums that do not match, to mark where the temple stood.
The Aydınid mosque whose foundation inscription names both its founder and its architect, Ali of Damascus.
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 Selçuk — the Artemision, İsa Bey Mosque and the Ephesus Museum, 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 Ephesus Archaeological Museum, Hall of Artemis Ephesia, Imperial Cult Hall, Artemision and The Column of the Artemision. 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 hours, plus the drive to Şirince 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.