Explore Atlanta

The Georgia State Capitol in downtown Atlanta was completed in 1889 in a classical style, and its dome is covered with gold leaf from Dahlonega, site of an early American gold rush. It houses the governor's office and the General Assembly, and the Georgia Capitol Museum on its upper floor shows exhibits on the state's history and government.

State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta, opened in 1999 as Philips Arena, is the home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. The indoor arena seats about 17,000 for basketball and also hosts concerts and other events. It stands next to the CNN Center complex and a short walk from Centennial Olympic Park.

Centennial Olympic Park is a 9-hectare public park in downtown Atlanta, built for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Its Fountain of Rings, shaped like the Olympic rings, plays water and music shows several times a day, and the park is surrounded by the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola and other attractions.

The College Football Hall of Fame moved to downtown Atlanta in 2014, next to Centennial Olympic Park; its facade is shaped like a giant football. Founded in 1951 by the National Football Foundation, it honours the players and coaches of American college football, with interactive exhibits, team memorabilia and an indoor practice field.

World of Coca-Cola is the museum of the Coca-Cola Company, which was founded in Atlanta in 1886. Opened in 2007 on Pemberton Place beside Centennial Olympic Park, it shows the history of the drink and its advertising, the vault said to hold the secret formula, a bottling line, and a tasting room with over 100 drinks from around the world.

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, opened in 2014 beside Centennial Olympic Park, is a museum on the American civil rights movement and on human rights worldwide. Its galleries include an interactive lunch-counter sit-in, the Morehouse College collection of Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers, and exhibits on present-day human rights struggles.

Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta, beside Centennial Olympic Park, opened in 2005 with a donation from Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus. More than 42 million litres of water hold thousands of animals in galleries such as Ocean Voyager, where whale sharks and manta rays swim past an underwater tunnel, and it has dolphin and sea lion presentations.

Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park covers the blocks of Auburn Avenue in Atlanta where King was born in 1929, grew up and preached. Run by the National Park Service, it includes his birth home, visited on ranger-led tours, the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, a visitor centre with exhibits on the civil rights movement, and the tombs of King and Coretta Scott King.

The Fox Theatre on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta opened in 1929 as a film palace in a Moorish and Egyptian style, first planned as a Shriners' temple. Saved from demolition in the 1970s, its 4,665-seat auditorium under an artificial night sky now hosts touring Broadway shows, concerts, comedy and the Atlanta Ballet.

Zoo Atlanta, founded in 1889, lies in Grant Park south-east of downtown Atlanta. It keeps more than 1,000 animals of over 200 species in habitats such as the African Savanna, the Ford African Rain Forest with gorillas and orangutans, and an area for reptiles and amphibians, and it is one of the few zoos in the United States with giant pandas.

The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, east of downtown Atlanta, holds the papers of the 39th president and is run by the National Archives. Its museum covers Carter's life from his childhood in Plains, Georgia, to his presidency and humanitarian work, with a full-size replica of the Oval Office and his 2002 Nobel Peace Prize; Japanese gardens surround the buildings.

Piedmont Park is an 81-hectare public park in Midtown Atlanta, about 1.6 km north-east of downtown. Once a farm and a horse-racing ground, it hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895 and was later shaped by the Olmsted Brothers. It has Lake Clara Meer, lawns, sports fields, a dog park and a weekend farmers' market, and borders the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The High Museum of Art on Peachtree Street in Midtown is the largest art museum in the south-eastern United States, founded in 1905. Its white enamel-panelled building by Richard Meier opened in 1983 and was extended by Renzo Piano in 2005. The collection of more than 20,000 works is strong in American decorative arts, folk and self-taught art, modern art and photography.

The Atlanta Botanical Garden covers 12 hectares beside Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta and was incorporated in 1976. It has a tropical conservatory, an orchid house, a Japanese garden, an edible garden and the Kendeda Canopy Walk, a suspended walkway through the treetops of Storza Woods, and it stages seasonal exhibitions and a winter light show.

The Atlanta History Center in Buckhead, north of downtown, is a history museum founded in 1926 on a 13-hectare campus. Its galleries cover Atlanta's past and the Civil War, and they display the restored Cyclorama painting of the Battle of Atlanta. The grounds include the 1928 Swan House mansion, the Smith Family Farm and historic gardens.

Six Flags Over Georgia is an amusement park of about 117 hectares in Austell, some 20 km west of downtown Atlanta, opened in 1967 as the second park of the Six Flags chain. It has more than a dozen roller coasters, including the wooden Great American Scream Machine of 1973, plus water rides and areas themed to Looney Tunes and DC Comics.