Photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin (CC BY 2.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Uxmal, the leading power of the western Puuc hills in the eighth and ninth centuries. From the oval Pyramid of the Magician, built in five phases from the sixth century to about the tenth, and the Quadrangle of the Birds beside it, through the Nunnery Quadrangle and the ball court dedicated in AD 901 under the ruler known as Lord Chak, to the Governor's Palace, about 98 metres long, with the Double-headed Jaguar Throne on its axis and the House of the Turtles on its terrace. Then El Palomar and its pigeonhole cresting, the nine-level Great Pyramid, the Platform of the Stelae and the carved skulls of the Cemetery Group, and south to the Temple of the Phalli and the House of the Old Woman. The tour keeps the legend of the dwarf who raised the pyramid in a night apart from the five building phases the archaeology shows. The Pyramid of the Magician is not climbed; it is seen from below.
13 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 · 21 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 2 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.
Nunnery Quadrangle, Pyramid of the Magician, Quadrangle of the Birds.
Ball Court, Double-headed Jaguar Throne, El Palomar, Governor's Palace, Great Pyramid, House of the Turtles.
Cemetery Group, Platform of the Stelae, House of the Old Woman, Temple of the Phalli.
Four buildings around a courtyard, entered through the arch of the south building, their upper façades stacked with Chaac masks.
The oval pyramid built in five phases from the sixth century to about the tenth, its western staircase flanked by Chaac masks; it is not climbed.
Two joined jaguars facing away from each other, set on the palace's central axis; Stela 14 shows Lord Chak standing on one like it.
The Dovecote, named for the nine-triangle openwork cresting with its pigeonhole openings; parts of the complex opened to visitors in November 2023.
About 98 metres long on its stepped platform, with an enthroned figure over the central doorway and Venus glyphs on the masks' cheeks.
Four low platforms carved with skulls, crossed bones, shields and bands of glyphs, some of the skulls set upside down.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 13 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. 13 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 Uxmal — the Puuc Capital, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
13 narration points, including Nunnery Quadrangle, Pyramid of the Magician, Ball Court, El Palomar and Governor's Palace. That is about 18 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 ~2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 13 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.