Explore Ottawa

The National War Memorial, titled The Response, is a tall granite arch with bronze figures by Vernon March in Confederation Square, Ottawa, dedicated by King George VI in 1939. Built for the Canadians who died in the First World War, it was rededicated in 1982 and 2014 to all of Canada's war dead. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was placed in front of it in 2000.

The Rideau Canal is a 202-kilometre waterway linking Ottawa with Kingston on Lake Ontario, built under Lieutenant-Colonel John By and opened in 1832. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Ottawa a flight of eight locks climbs from the Ottawa River between Parliament Hill and the Château Laurier, and in winter a stretch of the canal becomes the Rideau Canal Skateway.

The ByWard Market is a market and entertainment district in Ottawa's Lower Town, east of Parliament Hill, laid out by Lieutenant-Colonel John By in the 1820s. At its centre the brick market building at 55 ByWard Market Square holds food and craft vendors, and from May to October stalls fill York and George streets. Restaurants, bars and shops line the streets around it.

Parliament Hill is the seat of the Parliament of Canada: Gothic Revival buildings on a bluff above the Ottawa River, begun in 1859. The Centre Block and its Peace Tower, rebuilt after a 1916 fire, are closed for a rehabilitation lasting into the 2030s. Visitors walk the grounds to the Centennial Flame; the House of Commons sits in the West Block, which offers guided tours.

The Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica is the oldest and largest church in Ottawa and the seat of its Roman Catholic archbishop, on Sussex Drive opposite the National Gallery. Begun in 1841, it has twin spires with a gilded statue of the Madonna between them. Inside are carved wooden galleries, a vaulted blue ceiling and stained glass. It is a National Historic Site of Canada.

The National Gallery of Canada is the country's national art museum, founded in 1880. Since 1988 it has occupied a glass and granite building by Moshe Safdie on Sussex Drive in Ottawa, facing Parliament Hill. The collection of more than 93,000 works covers Canadian, Indigenous, European, American and Asian art, and Louise Bourgeois's spider sculpture Maman stands outside.

The Royal Canadian Mint has worked since its founding in 1908 in this castle-like stone building at 320 Sussex Drive in Ottawa, now a National Historic Site. The Ottawa facility makes collector coins, gold and silver bullion and medals, while circulation coins are struck in Winnipeg. Guided 45-minute tours walk past the production floor, and a boutique sells coins.

The Canadian Museum of History is Canada's national museum of human history, in Gatineau, Quebec, across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill. Its curving building by Douglas Cardinal opened in 1989. The Grand Hall shows Pacific Coast totem poles, the Canadian History Hall traces 15,000 years of history, and the building also houses the Canadian Children's Museum.

The Canadian Museum of Nature is Canada's national natural history museum, housed since 1911 in the castle-like Victoria Memorial Museum Building in Ottawa. A glass tower was added in a renovation completed in 2010. Its galleries show fossils and dinosaurs, a blue whale skeleton, Canadian mammals and birds, minerals and an Arctic gallery.

The Canadian War Museum is Canada's national museum of military history, founded in 1942. Its building on LeBreton Flats in Ottawa, designed by Raymond Moriyama, opened in 2005. Galleries trace conflicts from early Indigenous warfare to Afghanistan with tanks, artillery, uniforms and art, and Memorial Hall holds the headstone of the Unknown Soldier of the First World War.

Rideau Hall is the official residence and workplace of the Governor General of Canada, at 1 Sussex Drive in Ottawa. Thomas MacKay built the original stone villa in 1838, and it has housed every governor general since Confederation in 1867. Guided tours show the state rooms and their Canadian art, and the 32-hectare grounds have gardens, woods and trees planted by dignitaries.

The Canada Aviation and Space Museum is Canada's national aviation museum, at the former Rockcliffe airfield in Ottawa. Formed in 1964 from three collections, it moved in 1988 into a large triangular hangar. More than 130 aircraft span early flight, bush planes, airliners and military jets, beside the nose section of the Avro Arrow and a Canadarm from the Space Shuttle.