Memphis Area Attractions

There are a lot of good reasons to visit Memphis. Paying respects to Elvis at Graceland. Swinging to historic jazz on Beale Street. Stopping at the airport to feel the packaged FedEx pulse. Seeing the mighty Mississippi, glancing across at Arkansas. Memphis is a proud, flowing, rejuvinated, and happening town.

Memphis spawned several of the most important musical forms of the 20th century, yet Nashville stole the Tennessee limelight with its country music. Ask the average American what makes Memphis special, and he or she might be able to tell you that this is the city of Graceland, Elvis Presley's mansion.

What they're less likely to know is that Memphis is also the birthplace of the blues, rock 'n' roll, and soul music. Memphis is where W. C. Handy put down on paper the first written blues music; where the King made his first recording; and where Otis Redding and Al Green expressed the music in their souls.

Graceland
3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard • Memphis, TN 38186 • 901.332.3322 • 800.238.2000
Graceland today is Memphis's biggest attraction and resembles a small theme park or shopping mall in scope and design. The former home of rock 'n' roll-legend Elvis Presley and annually the destination of tens of thousands of love-struck pilgrims searching for the ghost of Elvis, is the second most visited home in America. Only the White House receives more visitors each year. A look around at the crowds waiting in various lines at this sprawling complex makes it clear that Elvis, through his many recordings, numerous movie roles, and countless concerts, appealed to a wide spectrum of people. Today, more than 20 years after Elvis's death, Graceland draws visitors of all ages from all over the world. This is a clear testimony to the power of a man who, if you believe the tabloids, has been seen more since he died than he was ever seen in public when he was alive.

Beale Street
203 Beale Street • Memphis, TN 38103 • 901.526.0110
It first rang out over the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta. It migrated to the streets and clubs of Memphis. It went on to influence the sound of music all over the world. Memphis is the Home of the Blues and the Birthplace of Rock 'n Roll. And it all began on Beale Street.

Beale Street is one of the most famous streets in Memphis, and it is the soul of old Memphis. Aside from the bustling cotton trade on the cobblestone banks of Front Street along the Mississippi, no other Memphis landmark has held such mystique, intrigue, fame and infamy over the years.

Memphis Rock 'N' Soul Museum
145 Lt. George Lee Avenue • Memphis, TN 38103 • 901.543.0800
You know the names by now. Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others. You know their songs by heart. Memphis produced more than 120 Top 20 hits, songs born in a city some musicologists call "The Holy Ground of American music.

To learn more about this American born music visit the The Memphis Rock `n' Soul Museum, featuring the Smithsonian Institution's Rock `n' Soul: Social Crossroads exhibition, a dazzling chronology of rebellious hearts and echoes that shaped "the Memphis Sound." Artifacts, pictures, words-- and of course, music-highlight slices of our cultural and musical past.

Memphis Zoo and Aquarium
2000 Galloway Avenue • Memphis, TN 38104 • 901.276.WILD
Memphis's Egyptian heritage is once again called upon in the imposing and unusual entranceway to the Memphis Zoo. Built to resemble an ancient Egyptian temple, the zoo's entry is covered with traditional and contemporary hieroglyphics. Leading up to this grand entry is a wide pedestrian avenue flanked by statues of some of the animals that reside at the zoo. The zoo has recently completed a $25-million renovation that has added a 5-acre, realistic primate habitat, an exhibit of nocturnal animals, and an extensive big-cat area with habitats that are both realistic and highly imaginative. These new areas are among the best zoo exhibits in the country. The butterfly garden, with more than three dozen species in various stages of development, is open Memorial Day to October 31.

National Civil Rights Museum
450 Mulberry Street • Memphis, TN 38103 • 901.521.9699
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., came to Memphis in early April of 1968 in support of the city's striking garbage collectors. He checked into the Lorraine Motel as he always did when visiting Memphis. On April 4, he stepped out onto the balcony outside his room and was shot dead by James Earl Ray. The assassination of King struck a horrible blow to the American civil rights movement and incited riots in cities across the country. However, despite the murder of the movement's most important leader, African-Americans continued to struggle for the equal rights that were guaranteed to them under the U.S. Constitution.

Saved from demolition, the Lorraine Motel was remodeled and today serves as the nation's memorial to the civil rights movement. In evocative displays, the museum chronicles the struggle of African-Americans from the time of slavery to the present. Multimedia presentations and life-size, walk-through tableaux include historic exhibits: a Montgomery, Alabama, public bus like the one on which Rosa Parks was riding when she refused to move to the back of the bus; a Greensboro, North Carolina, lunch counter; and the burned shell of a freedom-ride Greyhound bus.

Home > Memphis Attractions