Photo: Annatsach (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Thessaloniki's lower city, on foot from Ladadika by the port to the White Tower and the museums on the sea front; the upper town and its walls have a tour of their own. The city was founded around 316 or 315 BC by Cassander, and Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and the modern Greek state each left their buildings in these streets. From the old warehouse quarter of Ladadika the walk comes to the Holocaust Memorial on Eleftherias Square, where the story of the city's Jews is told: between March and August 1943 more than 45,000 were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It continues to the Jewish Museum, Aristotelous Square, laid out after the fire of 18 August 1917, the Modiano Market, the Bezesteni, the Hamza Bey Mosque and the Monastiriotes Synagogue, then to Panagia Chalkeon, the Bey Hamam of 1444, the Roman Forum, Agios Dimitrios, the Alaca Imaret, the Acheiropoietos and Hagia Sophia. The last part takes in Galerius's Rotunda, the arch raised for his victory over the Persians and his palace, and ends at the White Tower, built by the Ottomans after they took the city in 1430, and the Archaeological and Byzantine museums.
23 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 · 395 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 67 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.
Ladadika, Eleftherias Square and the Holocaust Memorial, Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, Aristotelous Square, Modiano Market, Bezesteni, Hamza Bey Mosque, Monastiriotes Synagogue.
Panagia Chalkeon, Bey Hamam, Roman Forum, Agios Dimitrios, Alaca Imaret Mosque, Acheiropoietos, Hagia Sophia.
Agios Panteleimon, Rotunda, Arch of Galerius, Church of the Saviour, Palace of Galerius, White Tower, Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Museum of Byzantine Culture.
The Holocaust Memorial on Liberty Square; between March and August 1943 more than 45,000 of the city's Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
A double bath built for Sultan Murad the Second in 1444, with separate wings for men and women under domes of different sizes.
The basilica of the city's patron saint, on the place where, by tradition, he was killed in 306 under the emperor Galerius.
The oldest of Galerius's great buildings, in turn temple or tomb, church, mosque and church again.
The Kamara, raised between about 298 and 305 to celebrate Galerius's victory over the Persians in 298.
The symbol of Thessaloniki, built by the Ottomans in the fifteenth century in place of an older Byzantine tower.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 23 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. 23 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 Thessaloniki — Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and the Jewish City, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
23 narration points, including Eleftherias Square and the Holocaust Memorial, Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, Aristotelous Square, Modiano Market and Hamza Bey Mosque. That is about 33 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. 23 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.