Photo: Iolchos07 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Aigai, the first capital of the Macedonian kings, visited in parts: the Polycentric Museum, the Museum of the Royal Tombs under the Great Tumulus in the village, and the palace and theatre on the slope above, reached by car or on foot. Aigai was the political heart of the kingdom until the seat of government moved to Pella around the start of the fourth century BC, and it remained the dynasty's ceremonial centre and burial ground. The Polycentric Museum, opened in December 2022, holds the restored façade of the palace. Inside the Great Tumulus, whose royal tombs Manolis Andronikos opened in 1977, are Tomb I with its painted scenes from Greek myth, Tomb II, found untouched and identified by Andronikos as the tomb of Philip the Second, its treasures in gold, silver and ivory, Tomb III, the Prince's Tomb, and the heroon. Beyond the cemetery of some 540 tumuli come the Queens' cluster, with the tomb associated with Eurydice, the sanctuaries of the Mother of the Gods and of Eukleia, the theatre where Philip the Second died in 336 BC, his palace, finished that year, and the acropolis and city walls.
14 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 · 10 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 8 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.
Polycentric Museum of Aigai, Museum of the Royal Tombs and the Great Tumulus, Tomb I, the Tomb of Persephone, Tomb II, the Tomb of Philip II, The Treasures of Tomb II, Tomb III, the Prince's Tomb, Heroon.
Cemetery of the Tumuli.
The Queens' Cluster and the Tomb of Eurydice, Sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods, Sanctuary of Eukleia, Theatre of Aigai, Palace of Aigai, The Acropolis and the City Walls.
The museum built inside the Great Tumulus, the artificial mound that hid the royal tombs of Aigai.
A robbed cist grave whose walls still carry painted scenes from Greek myth, with Hermes running ahead of the chariot.
Found untouched and identified by Manolis Andronikos as the tomb of Philip the Second, with two burial chambers behind its façade.
Finds in gold, silver, bronze, iron and ivory, among them the gold larnax with its sixteen-rayed star and an oak wreath.
Where Philip the Second died in 336 BC, when the court had gathered for the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra to Alexander of Epirus.
Philip the Second's palace on an artificial terrace 104 metres long, finished in 336 BC, the year he was killed in the theatre below.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 14 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. 14 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 Aigai (Vergina) — the Royal Tombs, the Palace and the Theatre, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
14 narration points, including Polycentric Museum of Aigai, Museum of the Royal Tombs and the Great Tumulus, Tomb I, the Tomb of Persephone, The Treasures of Tomb II and Sanctuary of Eukleia. That is about 17 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. 14 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.