Atlanta is sometimes described as a “horizontal city.” With few natural barriers to contain or restrict its growth, the city has developed in a sprawling, dispersed fashion. The city’s low population density levels contrast sharply with those of older, more densely packed northern cities such as New York, Boston, or Chicago. The tallest and most closely grouped buildings are found in downtown Atlanta around an intersection called Five Points, and in the area immediately north. This is the business and historic heart of the city. Further north of this area are Midtown and Buckhead, the location of many of the city’s cultural institutions, Piedmont Park (Atlanta’s largest public park), and a number of older, traditionally white residential communities. To the immediate east of downtown is the Auburn Avenue community, the historic center of the city’s black business, religious, and entertainment life. Also in the east are Inman Park (Atlanta’s first planned suburb), and Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park, featuring the largest granite outcropping in the world and a massive relief carving of Confederate leaders from the American Civil War (1861-1865); the park also contains historic houses, a museum, recreational facilities, and a campground.

Notable structures and sites of interest in downtown Atlanta include the State Capitol (1889); Underground Atlanta, a subterranean marketplace with shops, bars, and cafes; City Hall (1930); and the Peachtree Center business complex. The Georgia Dome, the home of the Atlanta Falcons football team, and the Philips Arena, where the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team began play in 1999, are also located downtown.

Points of interest in southern Atlanta include the Atlanta Zoo; the Cyclorama (a 109-m/358-ft mural depicting the Civil War Battle of Atlanta); The Wren’s Nest (former home of 19th and early-20th century writer Joel Chandler Harris); and Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves baseball team, which opened in 1997. Northern Atlanta is the site of Ansley Park residential community, the governor’s mansion, and the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

Eastern Atlanta features the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site (including King’s birthplace; Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached; and the King Center, where his tomb is located). The Herndon Home (the residence of Atlanta’s first black millionaire, a former slave named Alonzo Franklin Herndon) and Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park are located in western Atlanta.