Review & Contest: Iconic Guides – Audio Guides to the Past

A few months ago I received a very polite email addressed to me, Leigh; instead of the more typical Hi there I frequently receive. So right off the bat I was impressed with Dr. Benedict Davies. And then I listened to one of his Iconic Guides and I was amazed by the quality of the information.

Here’s the story behind the audio guides.

Dr. Davies holds a PhD in Egyptology and has studied Greek history at an advanced level. Add penning a number of academic books and articles to his credentials and you can appreciate that he has the pedigree to present material on ancient monuments and archaeological sites.

Dr. Davies has recently launched Iconic Guides; an internet business which produces and sells audio guides to sites of historic interest in Egypt, Greece and Japan. These audio guides are intensely researched using current academic source material. They are aimed at cost conscious, independent travelers who are curious about the sites they visit. The audio guides are meant to complement rather than compete with guidebooks. Priced at £2.99 ($Cdn4.85) per guide, they barely set you back more than a Grande latte. Bundles of guides are even more cost effective. For example the Pyramids of Egypt retail for £9.99 ($Cdn16.25) and for that you get five guides covering roughly 75 minutes of audio time.

Benedict describes the iconic guides as follows:

Each guide is packed with absorbing and in-depth commentaries that delve deeply into the cultural, artistic and architectural heritage of these ancient civilizations. 

It’s reasonably straight forward to buy a guide though the language on the website is a tad confusing. Essentially after registering on site and paying through Paypal you receive a link which is active for 72 hours. With that link you can download the guides (which can take several minutes because of their size) onto your MP3 player. Most guides are 20 -24 minutes in length. The printable PDF file with the site plan is included with the download.  Each site plan has numbered locations that correspond to audio files. Then as you wander through the ancient sites you can listen at the numbered locations to the extremely soothing and well spoken Della, the professional voiceover artist.

The Voice Behind the GuidesÂ

Dr. Davies initially attempted to produce the guides himself. Early on he decided his voice lacked the professionalism he was seeking so off he went on the hunt for a voiceover artist. Through advertising on Voices and listening to 60 auditions he found Della Phillips. She is the gentle voice behind all the guides. She doesn’t miss a beat, her pronunciation is impeccable and she’s very easy to understand. That in itself is another reason for buying a guide for your trip. Think of how many tours you’ve had where you could barely hear let alone understand the human guide. The only criticism is that you aren’t entertained by an audio guide in the same way you might be by a live guide.

Producing an Iconic Guide

Each guide requires at least a week to research. Then a script is written, edited over a few days and forwarded to Della for the voiceover portion. That in turn is matched with the site drawings in both 2D and 3D format, another aspect of producing the guides that Dr. Davies has mastered. Then all the information is collated for download onto the computer and voila – the birth of another iconic guide.

Future Iconic Guides

Dr. Davies isn’t planning to relax anytime soon. More guides are in the works to cover ancient destinations in Italy, Turkey, Mexico and China. He is also trying to recruit fellow academics in other fields to write guides. His ultimate wish is for Iconic Guides to become the GO TO site for audio guides to the ancient world.

From my experience listening to the Palace of Knossos guide I can attest to the professionalism of the product. The PDF file containing the site plan is also well laid with numbered locations corresponding to audio files. Dr. Davies is the consummate professional and a perfectionist.

He is to be commended for producing these great quality audio guides.

CONTEST

Would you like to win a set of Pyramid Audio Guides?

To be eligible to win a set of Iconic Guides (approximate retail value is $Cdn25) that includes all the pyramid sites Dr. Davies currently has please leave a comment on this blog – telling me why you’d like the guides. A random draw will take place on October 15^th.

The following pyramids are included in the prize:

Saqqara, Meidum, Dashur, Giza (Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, plus Sphinx) and the pyramids of Unas and Teti at Saqqara (including the pyramid texts) – all of which are well within striking distance of Cairo.

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