Skip to Main Content
Tumamoc Hill Tumamoc Hill | Downtown Tucson Partnership Skip to Main Content

Tumamoc Hill

Category   Historic Landmarks

Address

260 S Church Ave
Tucson, AZ 85701

View on Google Maps

Details

C on Turquoise Trail Map (View From Turquoise Trail): Tumamoc means “horned lizard” in the Tohono O’Odham language. In an O’Odham legend, a giant horned lizard suddenly began eating people. The O’Odham prayed to their god I’itoi to help them. I’itoi heard them and turned the lizard into a rocky hill. The hill was used by indigenous people for farming and other purposes for several thousand years and is an important archaeological site.Today, Tumamoc Hill is the home of the U of A’s Desert Laboratory founded in 1903. It is the site of the longest continuous botanical monitoring plots in the Sonoran Desert. Tumamoc is also a very popular walking route for seekers of aerobic exercise. The Tumamoc Tour app is available on smartphones for those interested in learning more about the desert plants and animals around them as well as the area’s 4,000+ years of human history.

Nearby Dining
Nearby Shopping
Nearby Services