Atlanta offers photographers the capital of Georgia and the birthplaces of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coca-Cola.

Founded as a railroad hub, the city was named in 1845 for what it offered — a route to the Atlantic Ocean. Burned to the ground in the Civil War, Atlanta rose from the ashes as the capital of the “New South” with a modern economy and higher education, becoming a leader of the civil rights movement.

Situated among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Atlanta straddles the Eastern Continental Divide and is nicknamed the “city in a forest” due to an abundance of trees that is rare among major cities. Creek Indians lived about eight miles north of today’s downtown, where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River but they were forced to leave in 1821 in favor of white settlers.

Georgia State Capitol is an architecturally and historically significant building in the center of Atlanta. The Capitol houses the governor’s office, legislative chambers, and a museum.

Atlanta donated the site (previously home to the first Atlanta City Hall) to encourage the state government to relocate the capital city to rapidly growing and industrialized Atlanta from rural Milledgeville.

Completed in 1899, Georgia State Capitol is designed to resemble the Neoclassical architectural style of the United States Capitol, in Washington, D.C.

The dome is gilded (since 1958) with native gold leaf from near Dahlonega in Lumpkin County, where the first American gold rush occurred during the 1830s. Hence state media refers to legislative business as what is happening “under the Gold Dome.”

Miss Freedom (originally Goddess of Liberty) is a statue on top of the Georgia State Capitol. Installed in 1888, she holds aloft a torch which is a Mercury vapor lamp, casting a blue-green light at night. The light represents truth and enlightenment, while a sword in her other hand symbolizes the fight of people who seek liberty.

The hollow copper statue is painted white, weighs over 1600 lbs and is over 26 feet tall. Miss Freedom wears a robe and Phrygian cap adorned with a star.

Jimmy Carter is a statue of the 76th Governor of Georgia and 39th President of the United States.

Liberty Plaza is a park in front of the State Capitol. Opened in 2015, the plaza includes a flag circle, a replica of the Liberty Bell, and a model of the Statue of Liberty.

Tribute to Olympism and Hellenism is a bronze fan-shaped sculpture with three running figures made in 1996 by Greek artist Peter Calaboyias.

Gateway of Dreams honors the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

The CNN Center is the world headquarters of CNN (Cable News Network). CNN was founded in 1980 by media proprietor Ted Turner as the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage. The network moved to this location in 1987 and was bought by Time Warner in 1996.

The south entrance of CNN Center has a large logo sculpture.

The atrium at CNN Center includes the world’s longest free-standing (supported only at the ends) escalator, built for a theme park that once occupied the building.

The Flair is a bronze statue by Richard MacDonald made for the 1996 Summer Olympics.

The Georgia Aquarium is America’s largest aquarium with over 100,000 animals in 10 million US gallons (38,000 m) of marine and salt water.

The World of Coca-Cola is a museum opened in 2007 showcasing the history of The Coca-Cola Company. It is located just blocks away from where John Pemberton created the original Coca-Cola formula.

John Pemberton is a statue of Coca-Cola’s inventor. An injured Civil War veteran, John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in Atlanta in 1886, originally as a pain-relieving medicine using cocaine and kola nut. (Cocaine was removed in 1899). Poverty forced him to sell the patent for $2,300 by 1888 and he died of stomach cancer and morphine addiction.

The National Center for Civil Rights is a museum dedicated to the achievements of both the civil rights movement in the United States and the broader worldwide human rights movement. Designed by Philip Freelo, he building opened in 2014 on land donated by the Coca-Cola Company.

The Nelson Mandela Fountain is a 2014 sculpture by Larry Kirkland with water cascading down two 32-foot-high panes of glass. Each pane is etched with a quote.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.” — Margaret Mead.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” — Nelson Mandela.

Rise Up is the largest freestanding bird sculpture in the world. The 41-foot-high falcon on a 13-foot-high football stands at the home of the Atlanta Falcons NFL team and is named for the team’s motto. It was designed by Gábor Miklós Szőke in Hungary.

[start]SkyView Atlanta is a 200-foot (61 m) Ferris wheel with 42 gondolas, installed in 2013.

The Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotel is capped with a revolving restaurant called Polaris under a blue dome. This view is taken from the Marriott Marquis.

The cavernous atrium of the Hyatt Regency Atlanta soars 22 stories. Designed by John C. Portman, Jr., it opened in 1967.

The Atlanta Marriott Marquis is known for its large atrium — the largest in the world from 1985-1999 at 470 feet (143 m) high. Designed by Atlanta architect John C. Portman, Jr., the atrium spans the entire 52-story height of the building and consists of two vertical chambers divided by elevator shafts and bridges.

The hotel was the Capitol’s tribute center in the films The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.

Ballet Olympia is a 1992 sculpture by John Portman based on Maenad (1953) by Paul Manship.

The Olympia Building is a landmark at Five Points, the absolute center of Atlanta. Designed by architects Ivey and Crook, it was built between 1935 and 1936. Since 2003, a flashing Coca-Cola sign has stood on top of the building, the space for which Coke pays $8,641 a month.

ATL is the airport code for Atlanta, and forms the basis of a playground in Woodruff Park.

Atlanta from the Ashes (The Phoenix) is a bronze monument symbolizing Atlanta’s rise from the ashes of the Civil War to become a world city.

Designed by James Siegler of Texas, it was sculpted in Italy and dedicated in 1969. The sculpture depicts a woman being lifted from flames by a phoenix, in reference to the phoenix of Egyptian mythology that was consumed by fire and rose from the ashes, just as Atlanta rose from the ashes after the city’s infrastructure was burned by William T. Sherman’s Union Army during the Civil War.

The monument was a gift of the Rich Foundation in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Rich’s Department store and was originally located by the first Rich’s Department store in downtown Atlanta, from 1969 to 1995.

The Candler Building is a 17-story Beaux-Arts office tower named for Coca-Cola magnate Asa Griggs Candler. When completed in 1906 it was the tallest building in the city. The building was featured in the 2017 crime film Baby Driver, where it was the site of the first bank robbery committed in the film.

The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse is an Elizabethan theater with a Globe-inspired façade, home to the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. The tavern serves British pub food and beer before each performance.

Bank of America Plaza is the tallest building in Georgia and the tallest building in any U.S. state capital. The 1992 Art Déco tower is topped with a lattice pyramid which lights up at night, and a 90 ft (27 m) spire covered in 23 karat (96 percent) gold leaf.

The Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Company Plant, built in 1891, is where Coke became a mass-marketed bottled soft drink.

The High Museum of Art is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States. The 1983 building won Pritzker Prize for architect Richard Meier.

The Shade is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin at the entrance to the High Museum of Art. Similar to The Thinker, this is one of several casts of individual figures from Rodin’s monumental sculpture The Gates of Hell, based on Dante’s Inferno.

House III, 1997 (fabricated 2002) by Roy Lichtenstein is an optical illusion, where the corner that appears to be nearer the viewer is actually farther.

World Events is a 1996 sculpture by Tony Cragg, at the entrance to the Woodruff Arts Center.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is a 2001 building housing the sixth district of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States.

The Margaret Mitchell House was the home of author Margaret Mitchell, wrote the bulk of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gone with the Wind, while living in Apt. 1 on the ground floor from 1925 to 1932.

Clara Meer Bridge in Piedmont Park has a gazebo.

The Midtown Atlanta skyline from Lake Clara Meer in Piedmont Park.

The Atlanta Botanical Garden at Piedmont Park is a 30-acre (12 ha) botanical garden incorporated in 1976.

Earth Goddess in the Cascades Garden is a 25-foot-tall mosaiculture — a living carpet of plants over a steel skeletons created by International Mosaiculture of Montreal.

The Parterre Fountain is topped with a blue glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly in 2004.

Rhodes Hall (known as The Castle) is a historic Romanesque Revival house built for furniture magnate Amos Giles Rhodes.

Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a national organization of local chapters which provide after-school programs for young people. Founded in 1860, the headquarters is in Atlanta.

The World Athletes Monument (Prince Charles Monument) was a gift from HRH the Prince of Wales in honor of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games.

Swan House was built in 1928 for Edward and Emily Inman by Philip Trammell Shutze combining Classical and Renaissance styles. The rear facade has a fountain cascading down a staircase. A recurring motif are sculpted or painted swans throughout the house and grounds.

The house was used in the 2013 film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and in its 2015 sequel, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2.

The Vortex Bar and Grill in ittle Five Points is a burger restaurant opened in 1996 with a large “Laughing Skull” entrance. There is another location in Midtown.

The Martin Luther King Junior National Historic Site consists of several buildings including the original Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where King and his father Martin Luther King Sr. were pastors.

Established in 1980, the 35-acre site includes many buildings and a museum that chronicles the American Civil Rights Movement.

The King Tomb is the final resting place of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the year following King’s 1968 assassination, his wife, Coretta Scott King, started the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in the basement of the couple’s home. In 1981, the center was moved into a multimillion- dollar facility on Auburn Avenue, near King’s birth home and next to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he preached from 1960 until his death.

In 1977, a memorial tomb was dedicated to King. His remains were moved to the tomb, on a plaza between the center and the church. King’s gravesite and a reflecting pool are located next to Freedom Hall. After her death, Mrs. King was interred with her husband on February 7, 2006. An eternal flame is located nearby.

Behold commemorates the historic principles that guided the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The monument was unveiled in 1990 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King as an enduring inspiration to all who fight for dignity, social justice, and human rights.

The sculptor, Patrick Morelli, was inspired by the ancient African ritual of lifting a newborn child to the heavens and reciting the words “Behold the only thing greater than yourself.”

The heroic-sized, bronze figure of the father raises his infant child to the heavens and looks toward Ebenezer Baptist Church — the source of his spiritual strength and a site significant to the civil rights movement as the church in which both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his father, “Daddy” King, gave many powerful and inspirational sermons.

Gandhi is a 1998 statue by Ram Sutar of the father of modern India and inspiration for peaceful protest to Martin Luther King Jr.

The King Birth Home is the house where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in 1929. Built in 1895, the house was bought in 1909 by King’s maternal grandfather, pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, about a block east.

In 1926, when King’s father married, the couple moved into the house. King Jr. was born three years later and lived here to the age 12.

The visitor center offers free tours of the house (limited availability) led by National Park Service rangers.

Through His Eyes is a 1996 sculpture by Ralph Helmick honoring civil rights leader John Wesley Dobbs.

Zoo Atlanta exhibits more than 1,500 animals from 220 species, including gorillas and pandas.

The zoo was founded in 1889, when businessman George V. Gress purchased a bankrupt traveling circus and donated the animals to the city of Atlanta.

The Lion of Atlanta (or Lion of the Confederacy) is a sculpture in Oakland Cemetery honoring about 3,000 unknown Confederate dead that are buried here.

Carved by T.M. Brady in 1894 as a near copy of the Lion Monument (or Lion of Lucerne), an 1820 rock relief in Lucerne, Switzerland which Mark Twain declared “the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.”

The Neal Monument is a Neoclassical sculpture in Oakland Cemetery.

Homage to King is a sculpture of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Barcelona artist Xavier Medina-Campeny.

The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum houses materials from the 39th president of the United States. There is a full-scale replica of the Oval Office as it was during the Carter Administration, including a reproduction of the Resolute Desk.

The Atlantic Station Smokestack is a chimney from the original Atlantic Station steel mill.

Tech Tower (officially the Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Administration Building) is the focal point of Georgia Tech, and the original Academic Building from 1888.

The Carnegie Building, funded by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, opened in 1907 as the first campus standalone library. It is now the office to the President of the Institute.

Starr’s Mill is a picturesque grist mill on Whitewater Creek that used a water-powered turbine, instead of a wheel, to grind corn and operate a sawmill.

Hilliard Starr owned a mill on this site from 1866 until 1879. After the first two log structures burned, William T. Glower built the current building in 1907.

The mill is located 38 miles south of Atlanta in Fayette County, a suburb of Atlanta.

Amicalola Falls is the highest waterfall in Georgia, dropping 729 feet (222m). The name is derived from a word meaning “tumbling waters.”

Stone Mountain features the largest bas-relief in the world, a carving of Confederate figures: Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

The dome-shaped mountain, made of quartz monzonite, is an isolated hill (monadnock) more than 5 miles (8 km) in circumference at its base and standing 825 feet (251 m) above the surrounding area. The summit can be reached by a walk-up trail on the west side of the mountain or by the Skyride aerial tram.

The dome formed around 300-350 million years ago as an upwelling of magma from within the Earth’s crust (called a pluton).

The Confederate Memorial Carving was conceived around 1915 by Mrs. C. Helen Plane of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). After several phases and four artists, the carving was completed in 1972.

Stone Mountain Bridge is a covered bridge dating from 1892, which originally spanned the Oconee River in Athens, Georgia.

Fernbank Museum of Natural History greets visitors with a family of Lophorhothon atopus dinosaurs, which once lived in this region. They are named Georgia (mother, center), Haddie (left) and Ferny (right).

The museum, opened 1992, features a glass-enclosed atrium overlooking the largest old-growth urban Piedmont forest in the country.

Big Chicken is a 56-foot-tall steel chicken with moving eyes and beak, above a KFC restaurant. Stanley R. “Tubby” Davis built the giant advertisement in 1963 for his restaurant called Johnny Reb’s Chick-Chuck-‘N’-Shake. After becoming a KFC franchise, KFC funded a $2 million renovation project in 2017.

Kennesaw Battlefield Park preserves a Civil War battleground fought in 1864. The Confederate army of 50,000 men under Joseph E. Johnston defeated General Sherman’s Union army twice the size.

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is the largest Swaminarayan temple outside of India. Located in Lilburn, a suburb of Atlanta, this Hindu place of worship was opened in 2007. It is made of 34,450 pieces of hand-carved Italian marble, Turkish limestone and Indian pink sandstone.