Explore all 42 countries

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Hermitage, about 16 km east of downtown Nashville, was the plantation home of President Andrew Jackson from 1804 until his death in 1845; he and his wife Rachel are buried in its garden. Visitors tour the Greek Revival mansion, the grounds and the cabins of the people Jackson enslaved, who numbered over a hundred by 1845.

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.

The Grand Ole Opry House, opened in 1974 at Opryland east of downtown Nashville, is the home of the Grand Ole Opry, the country-music radio show broadcast since 1925. A six-foot circle of wood from the Ryman Auditorium's stage is set into its stage floor. Shows run several nights a week, and backstage tours are held by day.

Lane Motor Museum, opened in 2003 in a former bakery south-east of downtown Nashville, holds a collection of more than 500 cars and motorcycles, most of them European. About 150 vehicles are shown at a time, from microcars and amphibious vehicles to prototypes, and most are kept in running order.

The John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge is a steel truss bridge of 1909 across the Cumberland River in Nashville, closed to cars in 1998 and reopened for pedestrians and cyclists in 2003. About 960 metres long, it links downtown with East Nashville and the Nissan Stadium, with views of the skyline from its deck.

Hard Rock Cafe Nashville is the music-themed restaurant of the Hard Rock chain at the river end of Lower Broadway, at the corner of 1st Avenue. It serves American dishes and has a bar, a stage for live music and a Rock Shop, and displays guitars and stage clothes of country and rock musicians.

The Johnny Cash Museum on 3rd Avenue South in downtown Nashville opened in 2013 with the approval of the singer's estate. It traces Johnny Cash's life and career through stage clothes, instruments, letters, records and film clips, and includes a stone wall taken from his lake house in Hendersonville.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in downtown Nashville collects and presents the history of country music. Chartered in 1964, it moved in 2001 to a building whose windows recall piano keys. It shows instruments, stage costumes, cars and recordings, the Hall of Fame rotunda with its members' plaques, and the Hatch Show Print letterpress shop.

Ryman Auditorium opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, a red-brick church hall in downtown Nashville. From 1943 to 1974 it was the home of the Grand Ole Opry radio show, and it remains a concert hall with 2,362 seats and church-pew seating. By day, visitors tour the auditorium, its stage and exhibits on its history.