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Heian Imperial Capital Walk

Heian Imperial Capital Walk

Kyoto · Japan

6 stops
  • Audio guide
  • 4 languages
  • Offline

Walk through Kyoto places connected by the idea of the Heian imperial capital, beginning at Heian-jingū Shrine and its garden. Notice how the shrine, garden, and Grand Torii create a ceremonial opening before the route reaches the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Continue through Kyoto Gyoen National Garden to the Kyoto Sento Imperial Palace, where imperial spaces and garden settings bring the theme into focus. This is an easy walk for seeing how worship, formal grounds, and palace spaces shape the story of Kyoto’s imperial capital.

The walk

  1. Heian-jingū Shrine

    Heian-jingū Shrine

    Heian-jingū Shrine, a place of worship in Kyoto, Japan

  2. Heian Shrine Garden

    Heian Shrine Garden

    A modern Japanese strolling garden built for Heian Shrine’s founding in eighteen ninety-five.

  3. Heian-Jingu Shrine Grand Torii

    Heian-Jingu Shrine Grand Torii

    Heian-Jingu Shrine Grand Torii, a place of worship in Kyoto

  4. Kyoto Imperial Palace

    Kyoto Imperial Palace

    A former imperial palace rebuilt eight times, where Kyoto’s emperors remained until eighteen sixty-nine.

  5. Kyoto Gyoen National Garden

    Kyoto Gyoen National Garden

    Kyoto Gyoen National Garden is a park in Kyoto, Japan.

  6. Kyoto Imperial Palace

    Kyoto Imperial Palace

    A retired emperor’s palace vanished, leaving behind Kyoto’s garden masterpiece.

Data: OpenStreetMap contributors and Google Places

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How a walk works

The guide starts talking when you arrive.

This page is the map and the itinerary. The app is the guide who walks it with you.

  1. Pick a walk

    Every stop is a real place, already in walking order.

  2. Pocket your phone

    Follow the line on the live map, or download the walk before you lose signal.

  3. Listen as you arrive

    On a narrated walk the story starts on its own at each stop, so your eyes stay on the place.

Continue in the app

Free to install · Every city’s featured walk is free, start to finish.

  • A guide who talks

    Narration at every stop, starting on its own as you arrive — phone in your pocket.

  • The route, followed

    A live map with the turns called out, and a way back whenever you wander off it.

  • In four languages

    English, French, Spanish and Arabic — the words and the voice, not just the labels.

  • Or build your own

    Pick the places you actually want and the app works out the order to walk them in.

  • The unglamorous things

    Toilets, pharmacies, cash points and water, without leaving the walk.

  • No signal needed

    Download a walk before you go and it works under a souk roof or on a plane.

  • Picks up where you left off

    Stop for lunch, come back tomorrow, and the walk is exactly where you left it.