kml
What is a .kml file?
application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml
KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is an XML format for representing geographic features, popularized by Google Earth and Google Maps. It supports placemarks, paths, polygons, styling, and overlays with WGS84 coordinates. It is widely used for sharing annotated maps and 3D geospatial content.
How to use a .kml file
Use an example KML file to test geospatial parsing, placemark and style handling, and converters between KML, GeoJSON, and GPX.
Download example .kml files
- KML PlacesA KML document with named placemarks, for testing Google Earth / mapping importers.
- Kestrel Bay Territory: KML TwinThe same 14 features as KML Placemarks, with the multi-point buoys expressed as a MultiGeometry and the two holed polygons using innerBoundaryIs. KML orders coordinates longitude-first like GeoJSON, which makes it the least surprising twin in this group.
- KML: Point Placemarks With DescriptionsFive town Placemarks with plain-text descriptions and no styling: the smallest useful KML and the baseline for the rest of this subcategory. Coordinates match the master territory, so a KML-to-GeoJSON conversion can be diffed against a known answer.
- KML: LineString Placemarks With tessellateThe three roads as LineString Placemarks with `tessellate` set, which tells a globe renderer to drape the line over terrain rather than drawing it as a straight chord. Converters that drop the flag produce lines that tunnel through hills.
- KML: Polygons With innerBoundaryIs HolesTwo polygons that each carry an `innerBoundaryIs` ring: a parcel with a courtyard and a lake with an island. KML names its rings explicitly instead of relying on winding order, so converting to GeoJSON means deciding the winding rather than copying it.
- KML: MultiGeometry Mixing Points and a LineStringOne Placemark whose MultiGeometry mixes three Points with a LineString. GeoJSON has no equivalent single type for a heterogeneous set, so this must become a GeometryCollection, and converters that reach for MultiPoint instead lose the line.
- KML: Shared Styles and a normal/highlight StyleMapShared `Style` blocks referenced by `styleUrl`, plus a `StyleMap` pairing normal and highlight states. KML colours are written aabbggrr rather than the usual rrggbbaa, which is why converted maps so often come out with red and blue swapped.
- KML: Nested Folders (three levels)Eight Placemarks arranged in three levels of Folder, the hierarchy KML uses for layer trees. GeoJSON has nothing equivalent, so a converter must either flatten and record the path or lose the structure entirely, and this file makes which one it did obvious.
and 6 more in the library.