Memphis sits on the Mississippi River at the western edge of Tennessee, 200 miles from Nashville. It's the city where the blues took formal shape, where Elvis recorded his first single, where the civil rights movement reached a devastating turning point, and where a specific style of dry-rub rib was perfected in a downtown alley. Shelby County's population is about 900,000; the city's key districts are walkable and genuinely unlike anywhere else in Tennessee.
The 12 attractions below cover the city's core — its music history, civil rights landmarks, food identity, and more peculiar draws. Memphis is not interchangeable with Nashville; it rewards visitors who come expecting something different.
Jump to: Icons · Beale Street & Nightlife · Memphis BBQ · Memphis Originals · Planning Notes · Also worth visiting
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These three are the non-negotiable Memphis itinerary — the landmarks that define what the city is and why it matters to American history.
Graceland (Elvis Presley's Home) Must-see
Shelby County · Memphis
Elvis Presley bought Graceland in 1957 for $102,500; it has remained nearly unchanged since his death in 1977. The 10,000-square-foot mansion on Elvis Presley Boulevard draws 650,000 visitors a year — the second most-visited private home in the United States after the White House. The mansion tour covers all of Elvis's personal rooms including the Jungle Room, where he recorded parts of two albums. The estate campus adds his private planes, a fleet of customized cars, and a museum of stage costumes and gold records. Baz Luhrmann's 2022 biopic Elvis brought renewed global attention to the property, which served as a primary visual reference. Tickets start at $40 for the mansion; a full Elvis Experience pass runs $50–60.
Graceland (Elvis, 2022 Biopic) Must-see
Shelby County · Memphis
Baz Luhrmann's 2022 Elvis biopic — the highest-grossing music biopic in history at $285 million worldwide — used Graceland extensively for both interior and exterior sequences. The Jungle Room, living room, Meditation Garden, and mansion façade all appear on screen; the production design matched the actual interiors closely enough that the film cuts between archival footage and staged recreations without breaking continuity. Austin Butler's portrayal was partially filmed on-site. The global attention from the film drove a surge in Graceland bookings, and advance tickets are now routinely sold out on weekends. Tickets from $40 for the mansion tour.
National Civil Rights Museum (Lorraine Motel) Must-see
Shelby County · Memphis
The museum is built around the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The original motel rooms — including Room 306, where King stayed that night — are preserved behind glass exactly as they were. 260,000 square feet of exhibits trace the civil rights movement from the 1619 Project through the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, and beyond. The building across the street, from which the fatal shot was fired, is part of the campus and houses exhibits on the investigation and its aftermath. Admission runs about $18; closed Tuesdays.
Sun Studio (Walk the Line, 2005 + Music Documentaries) Must-see
Shelby County · Memphis
Sam Phillips opened Sun Studio at 706 Union Avenue in 1950. Elvis Presley recorded his first commercial single here in 1954; Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Roy Orbison, and Howlin' Wolf all recorded on the same equipment in the following years. The studio is still in active use — U2 and Ringo Starr have recorded here since — and the 45-minute tour ends with visitors standing on the original studio floor, handling microphones from the 1950s sessions. Walk the Line (2005) and multiple music documentaries have filmed here. Tours run hourly from 10 AM; tickets are about $16.
Beale Street & Nightlife
Beale Street is both a historic music district and a working entertainment strip — free to walk, open every night, and genuinely central to how Memphis identifies itself.
Beale Street Must-see
Shelby County · Memphis
Beale Street is legally recognized by Congress as the Home of the Blues — W.C. Handy published the first written blues compositions here in 1912. The entertainment district runs three blocks from Second to Fourth Streets in downtown Memphis; entry to every bar is free, and live blues, soul, and rock bands play from noon past midnight. The strip includes the B.B. King Blues Club, Blues City Cafe (full live bands every night), and Silky O'Sullivan's with its go-cup policy. The adjacent Mississippi Riverfront is a free walk with views of the Hernando de Soto Bridge and the Arkansas flatlands beyond. The Firm (1993) with Tom Cruise filmed on the street and riverfront.
Memphis Riverfront & Beale Street (The Firm, 1993) Worth the detour
Shelby County · Memphis
Sydney Pollack's 1993 adaptation of the John Grisham novel used Memphis's downtown core throughout — the Peabody Hotel lobby, the Pyramid, Beale Street's bars, and the Mississippi Riverfront bluff walk all appear as the city where Tom Cruise's character works at a corrupt law firm. The riverfront park runs along the top of the bluff above the Mississippi with views across to the Arkansas flatlands and the Hernando de Soto Bridge. The river provides immediate spatial context for Memphis that no other vantage point does. All the film's Memphis locations are free to walk.
Peabody Hotel Duck March (Memphis) Must-see
Shelby County · Memphis
Every day at 11 AM and 5 PM, a family of live mallard ducks rides an elevator from the Peabody Hotel's rooftop duck palace to the lobby fountain — and back — marching on a red carpet to John Philip Sousa's "King Cotton." The tradition started in 1933 when the hotel's general manager placed hunting decoys in the fountain after a night out; live ducks replaced them shortly after. The Duckmaster leads the procession; the lobby fills with guests and visitors for both marches. Watching is free. The Peabody is at 149 Union Avenue, three blocks from Beale Street.
FedExForum (Memphis Grizzlies) Worth the detour
Shelby County · Memphis
FedExForum is the 18,119-seat home of the Memphis Grizzlies NBA franchise, opened in 2004 and located two blocks from Beale Street. Memphis is one of the smaller NBA markets but sustains consistent home crowds and a devoted local following built on the Grit and Grind era teams of the early 2010s. The arena also hosts major concerts, college basketball, and boxing. Grizzly game tickets range from $25 for upper deck to several hundred dollars for premium seats; the surrounding blocks are walkable to most downtown Memphis restaurants.
Memphis BBQ
Memphis has a distinct BBQ identity: dry-rub pork ribs, slow-smoked, with sauce on the side — or skipped entirely.
Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken (Memphis) Must-see
Shelby County · Memphis
Gus's originated in Mason, Tennessee in the 1950s before the Memphis location on South Front Street became the flagship. The chicken is thin-battered, spiced with cayenne, and fried to a deep mahogany crust — noticeably different from Nashville-style hot chicken, which applies a wet paste after frying. Gus's has won multiple national best-fried-chicken rankings from Food & Wine and Bon Appétit. The South Front Street location is a 5-minute walk from the Mississippi River; expect a 30–60 minute wait on weekend evenings. The building is small, cash and card accepted.
Memphis Originals
A 19th-century zoo inside one of the city's best parks, and a 321-foot glass pyramid that is now the world's largest Bass Pro Shops.
Memphis Zoo Must-see
Shelby County · Memphis
Memphis Zoo, opened in 1906, sits inside Overton Park — a 342-acre urban green space that survived a 1970s fight when the Supreme Court halted an interstate highway project that would have demolished it (Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 1971). The zoo holds more than 3,500 animals across 70 AZA-accredited acres. It was one of only three US zoos to display giant pandas, a program that ran for over a decade. The Brooks Museum of Art and the Memphis College of Art are also in Overton Park; the park itself is free to walk. Zoo admission runs about $20 for adults.
Memphis Pyramid (Bass Pro Shops Mega-Store) Worth the detour
Shelby County · Memphis
The Memphis Pyramid was built in 1991 as a sports and concert arena — 321 feet tall, the third-largest pyramid in the world by volume. It sat vacant for a decade after the Grizzlies moved to FedExForum, then Bass Pro Shops converted it into a 535,000-square-foot megastore with a 100-room hotel, a bowling alley, an archery range, a restaurant, and a cypress swamp with live alligators and a freestanding forest inside the building. A glass elevator runs to an observation deck at the apex with views over the Mississippi River. Entry to the store is free; the observation deck charges about $10. On the north riverfront, 5 minutes from Beale Street.
Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis) Worth the detour
Shelby County · Memphis
Established in 1852, Elmwood is Memphis's oldest active cemetery — 80 acres with over 75,000 burials, Victorian and Gothic Revival funerary monuments, and mature hardwood trees. The grounds include mass burial sites from the yellow fever epidemic of 1878, when roughly 5,000 Memphians died in 90 days — a catastrophe that drove a quarter of the city's remaining population to flee and nearly ended Memphis as a functioning municipality. Civil War soldiers from both sides, prominent Tennessee politicians, and yellow fever victims are interred here. The cemetery offers regular guided walking tours (small fee); the grounds are free to walk on your own. Located about 2 miles east of downtown in South Memphis.
Planning Notes
Where to stay: Downtown Memphis puts you walking distance from Beale Street, the Peabody Hotel, and the National Civil Rights Museum. The South Main Arts District is quieter and slightly more affordable. Avoid suburban hotels unless renting a car — the top attractions cluster downtown and Graceland requires a specific car trip south.
Book ahead: Graceland timed-entry tickets are recommended — buy online to avoid long queues, especially in summer and around Elvis Week (mid-August). The Peabody Hotel Duck March is free but the lobby fills by 10:45am daily; arrive by 10:30 for a good view. Gus's Fried Chicken doesn't take reservations — expect a wait at peak hours.
Getting around: Downtown Memphis is walkable from Beale Street to the Peabody to the Civil Rights Museum — about a mile end to end. Graceland is 6 miles south on Elvis Presley Boulevard — a dedicated car or rideshare trip. Memphis Zoo is 4 miles east in Overton Park. Sun Studio is 2 miles from downtown, walkable in good weather.
