Explore Denver

The Colorado State Capitol in Denver houses the Colorado General Assembly and the governor's office. Designed by Elijah E. Myers and built of Colorado granite between 1886 and 1901, it has a dome covered in gold leaf. Visitors can walk through the building on weekdays, and guided tours climb to the dome's observation area.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, at Colfax Avenue and Logan Street. Built from 1901 to 1911 in the French Gothic style to designs by Leon Coquard, it has two 221-foot (67 m) spires, altars of Carrara marble and stained-glass windows. It became a minor basilica in 1979.

The Denver Art Museum is an art museum in the Civic Center of Denver, with a collection of more than 70,000 works from around the world, including American Indian art and art of the American West. Its campus joins the Martin Building by Gio Ponti (1971) and the angular, titanium-clad Hamilton Building by Daniel Libeskind, opened in 2006.

The Denver Mint is a branch of the United States Mint that has struck coins since 1906; its coins carry the mint mark D. Its stone building on West Colfax Avenue, near the Civic Center, was begun in 1897 and still produces circulating and commemorative coins. Guided tours explain the mint's history and how coins are made.

Denver Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden on York Street, beside Cheesman Park, run with the City and County of Denver on 24 acres (10 ha). It has themed gardens with plants from around the world, the Shofu-en Japanese garden, water-lily pools, a children's garden and the Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory, a domed glasshouse of tropical plants.

Elitch Gardens is a theme and water park in downtown Denver, near the South Platte River. It was founded in 1890 by John and Mary Elitch in northwest Denver and moved to its present site in 1995. It has roller coasters, family and children's rides, a water park with slides and pools, and a hand-carved carousel from 1928.

The Downtown Aquarium is a public aquarium with a restaurant beside the South Platte River near Interstate 25. Built as Colorado's Ocean Journey, it was bought by Landry's in 2003 and reopened in 2005. Its tanks hold about a million US gallons and more than 500 animal species, including a shipwreck exhibit with sharks and a stingray touch pool.

Denver Zoo, now run as the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, is an 80-acre (32 ha) zoo in City Park, founded in 1896. Its Bear Mountain was one of the first zoo enclosures in the United States built without cages, and areas such as Toyota Elephant Passage, Predator Ridge and Primate Panorama hold animals from around the world.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a natural history and science museum in Denver's City Park, founded in 1900 as the Colorado Museum of Natural History and opened in 1908. Its halls cover dinosaurs and prehistoric life, wildlife dioramas, gems and minerals and space science, and the building also houses the Gates Planetarium and a large-format film theatre.