kmz
What is a .kmz file?
application/vnd.google-earth.kmz
KMZ is a ZIP archive containing a KML document and the resources it references. The main document is stored as doc.kml at the archive root, with icons, overlay images, models, and any additional KML files alongside it, so a single file carries an entire map presentation. Google Earth and most GIS tools read KMZ and KML interchangeably.
How to use a .kmz file
Use an example .kmz file to test KML readers, map importers, and archive-aware pipelines, verifying that doc.kml is located correctly, that relative resource paths resolve inside the archive, and that styles and overlays survive extraction.
Download example .kmz files
- KMZ — Single doc.kml, No ResourcesThe minimal KMZ: a ZIP holding exactly one `doc.kml` at the archive root and nothing else. Readers are supposed to open the first .kml they find, and most look for the conventional name — this file satisfies both rules.
- KMZ — Bundled Icon Referenced by a Relative PathA KMZ whose style points at `files/markers/town.png` inside the same archive. Resolving that relative href against the archive rather than the filesystem is the whole job of a KMZ reader, and it is where extract-then-parse implementations break.
- KMZ — Nested Folders, a Second KML, and a NetworkLinkA KMZ that contains a second KML in a subdirectory, reached through a `NetworkLink` with a relative href, plus an overlay image two directories deep. Readers that only load `doc.kml` show the overlay but none of the three parcels.