Memphis Botanic Garden is a collection of gardens that covers over 96 acres (39 hectares) in East Memphis. The lovely Japanese garden, with its bridges, ponds and goldfish is a favorite with visitors, who come for the candlelight evening tours in the summer. In the spring, the Ketchum Iris Garden glows with a myriad of colors, while the Municipal Rose Garden is at its best in May, June, and September. There is even a Sensory Garden that is designed to appeal to all five senses.
Liberty Bowl Stadium is a massive football stadium that can seat up to 58,325 spectators. In 1965, the Liberty Bowl College Football Classic shifted from Philadelphia to Memphis, and that is how this stadium got its new name. It has witnessed some of the most remarkable college football games over the years. It also plays host to rock concerts.
Not so much a museum as an educational indoor playground, this place is full of interactive activities for kids. Youngsters can climb a skyscraper, explore a fire engine or "ride" a police motorcycle. Children especially love the miniature grocery store, where they can push their carts and "shop" for staples, and the playing bank, where they can write checks. Special exhibits and activities are also offered every month, including puppet shows and live music.
The Fire Museum is located in the first firehouse in Memphis. Kids will love the video games and interactive videos that simulate firefighting, while parents will appreciate the exhibit of unusual firefighting equipment from the last two centuries. If you take the restored trolley from Union or Beale, you can disembark at the museum, then walk up the street to the National Civil Rights Museum, in the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
This lovely 80-acre (32-hectare) cemetery is a wonderful place to go on a warm afternoon. Huge, shady trees protect the most interesting collection of graves and gravestones in the city. Elaborate Victorian monuments mark the final resting places of city founders such as Robert Church, the first black millionaire in Memphis, as well as Mayor E.H. "Boss" Crump and 19 generals from the Confederate Army.
In honor of the ancient Egyptian counterpart to the modern American city of Memphis, the local university maintains a museum featuring a good representation of the usual items from the City by the Nile, including a mummy, papyrus, and various implements and household goods. Another permanent exhibit is the Spirit of Africa, which has artifacts and sculptures from West Africa. In addition - and somewhat unexpectedly - the museum houses an interesting collection of miniatures of American furniture and a good smattering of American and European prints.