Photo: Michael Au (CC BY 2.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Altun Ha, the Maya trading town between the Caribbean coast and the inland cities, excavated by David Pendergast's Royal Ontario Museum team from 1964 to 1970. Plaza A, the main ceremonial precinct, with Structures A-3 and A-6 and the Temple of the Green Tomb, where a sixth-century burial held more than 300 jade objects; Plaza B and the Temple of the Masonry Altars, where in 1968 two Belizean members of the team found the carved jade head of the sun god, the largest carved jade object known from the Maya world; then the trail of about 550 metres south through a residential zone to Rockstone Pond, the town's reservoir, and the Reservoir Temple, described as the oldest at Altun Ha. The site is about fifty kilometres, roughly an hour by road, from the Belize City cruise tender pier: the ship's own excursion is the safer choice, and keep your all-aboard time in mind.
7 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 · 1 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.
The main ceremonial precinct, its surface tilted to send rainwater to the southwest corner.
The temple over Tomb A-1/1, a sixth-century burial with more than 300 jade objects, likely that of a ruler.
The long building closing the north side of Plaza A, with two parallel vaulted rooms that once had wooden lintels.
Altun Ha's tallest central temple, with seven tombs inside; in Tomb B-4/7 the excavators found the jade head of the sun god in 1968.
The town's main reservoir and, beside it, the stepped pyramid over Altun Ha's first complex tomb, with green obsidian from central Mexico.
Structure A-3, the smallest temple in Plaza A, stands on its southwest side.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 7 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. 7 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 Altun Ha — the Jade Head and the Temple of the Masonry Altars, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
7 narration points, including Temple of the Green Tomb (A-1), Plaza B, Rockstone Pond and the Reservoir Temple, Plaza A and Structure A-3. That is about 10 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 hour total, but you walk at your own pace. 7 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.