Memphis Tourist Attractions
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If Nashville is the capital of country music, Memphis is the home of Gospel, blues and rhythm and blues. The clubs in Beale Street were for decades the objective of all the singers, mainly black, who hoped for the big chance that would lead to their "discovery". One of them was Elvis Presley, whose grave on his Graceland estate is now the chief tourist attraction of Memphis.
Graceland
Graceland, the former home of music legend, Elvis Presley, is a pilgrimage site for true fans of the musician. Guided tours of the mansion include the famous Jungle Room, and his grave site.
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Memphis Zoo
The Memphis Zoo features 3,500 animals representing 500 species. The Memphis Zoo is one of only four zoos in the country with giant pandas on exhibit. Northwest Passage features polar bears, sea lions, black bears, bald eagles and ravens in a naturalistic environment. Commercial Appeal Cat Country is home to predator and prey - lions, tigers, cheetahs, capybaras and antelopes. The African Veldt has giraffes, rhinos, and elephants. Butterflies: In Living Color (an additional fee) is open seasonally from Memorial Day through October 1. Concessions, rides, gift shops and a discovery center are also available.
STAX Museum of American Soul
Located in Memphis, the STAX Museum of American Soul is where Stax Records was based. The museum features everything soul, the legends, the music, and the history. On display are a variety of artifacts, video clips of famous musicians and moments in music history, and other memorabilia.
Children's Museum of Memphis
The Children's Museum of Memphis features hands-on displays including a cityscape with a dental exhibit, grocery store, car mechanic and a bank.Experience hands-on excitement at the Children's Museum of Memphis! Children can sit in a flight simulator and a real airplane cockpit in Going Places, explore a Mississippi River model in WaterWORKS!, climb through the arteries of a giant heart and ride a bicycle on Mars in Growing Healthy. Other highlights include painting and sculpting in the art studio in Art Smart. In Cityscape, kids can board a real fire engine, shop for groceries, climb a skyscraper and more. Special events, workshops and programs are offered throughout the year.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
The Kress Collection at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art includes Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings, and sculpture from the late thirteenth century to the eighteenth century. The permanent collection of over 8,000 works also features 19th and 20th C sculpture by American sculptors, French bronzes as well as African works including masks and headdresses, reliquaries and carved figures. The decorative arts collection includes furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork and textiles.
Overton Park
To the east of downtown Memphis, between Poplar Avenue and East Parkway, are Overton Park and Overton Square, the center of midtown Memphis's night life. In addition to numerous restaurants and bars there is the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the oldest and largest art museum in Tennessee, with a collection that ranges from pictures by way of printed graphic art to textiles. In the north-west corner of the park are the Memphis Zoo and Aquarium.
Pink Palace Museum
South-east of Overton Park, at 3050 Central Avenue, is the Pink Palace Museum (geology, flora and fauna and history of the Middle South). It is housed in a villa that belonged to Clarence Saunders, who in 1916 founded the Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain (still flourishing).This Memphis museum got its name came from the pink marble that was used to construct the building.
C.H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa
The C.H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa is a prehistoric American Indian archaeological site dating back to the 15th century. The site features a Mississippian mound complex, nature trail and arboretum, hands-onarchaeology lab, and exhibits that explore the history and lifestyle of Native Americans from the historic and prehistoric southeastern United States.
National Ornamental Metal Museum
The National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis features historic and contemporary metal objects along with regular metalworking demonstrations. The grounds of the museum feature an outdoor sculpture garden, picnic area and a river-bluff pavilion. The Riverbluff Pavilion is made from castings dating to the 1850s from buildings on Beale Street.
Cotton Row
The crossing of Union Avenue and Front Street was where the cotton dealers formerly had their offices. The Cotton Exchange still exists today, but the electronic revolution means that only a few traders are to be found in the old exchange building.
Peabody Hotel
Some of the residents of the time-honored Peabody Hotel (149 Union Avenue) are ducks. Every day at 11 a.m. they are brought down in the lift from their apartment on the top floor, taken to their pond in the lobby, with musical accompaniment, and taken back at 5 p.m.
Dixon Gallery and Gardens
Margaret Oates Dixon and Hugo Norton Dixon bequeathed their Memphis home, their gardens and their collection of French Impressionist paintings to be enjoyed by future generations.
Memphis Botanic Garden and Goldsmith Civic Garden Center
The Memphis Botanic Garden and Goldsmith Civic Garden Center features roses, irises, wildflowers and magnolias as well as a Japanese garden with a pavilion and lake.
Gibson Guitar Factory Tour
The Gibson Guitar Factory in Memphis factory features a tour that shows the creation of Gibson guitars from a block of wood to the finished product.
Lichterman Nature Center
The Lichterman Nature Center in Memphis is a 65-acre wildlife sanctuary with nature trails, a greenhouse, a lake and two teaching pavilions.
Sun Studio
The Sun Studio in Memphis is a small recording facility where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King and Roy Orbison began their careers.
University of Memphis Art Museum
The University of Memphis Art Museum specializes in West African and Egyptian art.
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Map of Memphis Attractions
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