Photo: Simon Burchell (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Tikal, the city its kings called Yax Mutal, which grew for more than a thousand years in the forest of the Petén. It starts at the great ceiba and the two site museums, with Stela 31 and the reproduction of Jasaw Chan K'awiil's tomb, then the twin-pyramid complexes built to mark k'atun endings. At the Great Plaza stand Temple I, Jasaw's burial monument, and Temple II opposite, the North Acropolis over the tombs of early kings, and the Central Acropolis of the royal court. West past Temple III, the Bat Palace and Complex N to Temple IV, at some sixty-five metres the tallest building at Tikal. Then the Lost World Pyramid, raised first in the Middle Preclassic, and the Plaza of the Seven Temples; Temple V, with its six Chaac masks; and Group G and Temple VI at the end of the Méndez Causeway, a long walk through the forest. The structures are seen from the paths and plazas; the distances are long.
21 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 · 53 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 7 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 Great Ceiba, Museo Lítico, Museo Sylvanus G. Morley, Twin Pyramid Complex Q, Twin Pyramid Complex R.
Great Plaza, Temple I, Temple II, North Acropolis, Central Acropolis, The Great Plaza Ball Court, Temple III, Bat Palace, Twin Pyramid Complex N, Temple IV.
The Lost World Pyramid, The Talud-Tablero Temple, Plaza of the Seven Temples, Temple V, Group G, Temple VI, the Temple of the Inscriptions.
The heart of Tikal, framed by Temples I and II and the two acropolises, with some 70 stelae and altars.
The Temple of the Great Jaguar, burial monument of Jasaw Chan K'awiil, who defeated Calakmul in 695.
The royal necropolis, built over and over across centuries, with a great stucco mask on its terraces.
Yik'in Chan K'awiil's temple of about AD 741, at some sixty-five metres the tallest building at Tikal.
A radial pyramid first raised in the Middle Preclassic, set on a sunrise sightline to three small temples to the east.
Jasaw Chan K'awiil's k'atun complex of AD 711, with Stela 16 and Altar 5 in its northern enclosure.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 21 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. 21 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 Tikal — Yax Mutal, the Great City of the Petén, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
21 narration points, including The Great Ceiba, Museo Lítico, Museo Sylvanus G. Morley, Twin Pyramid Complex Q and Twin Pyramid Complex R. That is about 31 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 ~4 hours, plus the walk to Temple VI total, but you walk at your own pace. 21 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.