Photo: Saffron Blaze (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of ancient Side on its peninsula, from the monumental fountain outside the city gate to the temples by the harbour. Side was founded by Greek settlers from Cyme around the 7th century BC; in the early 1st century BC its port became a base for pirates and its marketplace was known for the slave trade, until Pompey defeated the pirates in 67 BC. The walk starts at the Nymphaeum, where an aqueduct from the river Melas ended, and follows the colonnaded street, its water channels visible under glass in places, past the Episcopal Palace and Basilica of the Byzantine bishops, the State Agora and a 6th-century building identified as a hospital, to the Commercial Agora and the round Temple of Tyche. The Side Museum fills a Roman bath of the 2nd century AD, beside the Vespasian Monument and the 2nd-century theatre. It ends at the Temple of Men, the South Basilica and the temples of Athena and Apollo, where five columns of Apollo's temple have been re-erected facing the sea. Side is a long drive east of Antalya; for cruise passengers short of time, the ship's own excursion is the safer choice.
15 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 · 20 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 11 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.
Nymphaeum, Colonnaded Street, Episcopal Palace and Basilica, State Agora, Byzantine Hospital, Commercial Agora.
Temple of Tyche, Side Museum, Vespasian Monument, Temple of Dionysus, Theatre.
Temple of Men, South Basilica, Temple of Athena, Temple of Apollo.
The monumental fountain outside the main city gate, where water brought by aqueduct from the river Melas poured into a great basin.
Side's main street, from the city gate towards the harbour and the temples, with its water channels visible under glass panels.
The museum in the Agora Bath, a Roman public bath of the 2nd century AD, restored and opened on 14 October 1962.
Built in the 2nd century AD on the site of an earlier Hellenistic theatre, in the age when Side took the title 'city of the admiral'.
A small temple with an unusual semicircular chamber on a raised podium, tentatively attributed to the Anatolian moon god Men.
A Roman temple in the Corinthian order facing the sea, five of its columns re-erected with part of the entablature.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 15 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. 15 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 Side — the Ancient City on the Peninsula, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
15 narration points, including State Agora, Nymphaeum, Colonnaded Street, Episcopal Palace and Basilica and Byzantine Hospital. That is about 16 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. 15 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.