Directly south of downtown, Grant Park is home to the Cyclorama , a huge circular painting (50ft by 900ft) depicting the Battle of Atlanta, executed by a group of German and Polish artists in 1885-86. Cycloramas used to travel around the country as entertainment in the days before movies; you sit inside the circle of the painting and the whole auditorium slowly rotates twice. During the second rotation, a guide provides interesting details about the painting; look out in particular for the hole in the wagon, originally used as a fire escape. In the accompanying museum, treating the war from the point of view of the average soldier, banks of distressing statistics are interspersed with photos and memorabilia (daily: summer 9.20am-5.30pm; rest of year 9.20am-4.30pm; $5). Adjacent, Zoo Atlanta ( ) features giant pandas from Chengdu and re-creations of African rainforests and other habitats (daily: summer 9am-6.30pm; rest of year 9.30am-5.30pm; $15). In summer, a special zoo shuttle runs from Five Points MARTA station to the park.

LITTLE FIVE POINTS TO EMORY UNIVERSITY

Northeast of Auburn Avenue, around Euclid and Moreland avenues, the youthful Little Five Points district is the center of Atlanta's alternative community, a tangle of thrift stores, secondhand record stores, funky restaurants, body-piercing and branding parlors, bars and clubs. By way of contrast, just a few blocks north at 1 Copenhill Ave, on the hill where Sherman is said to have watched Atlanta burn, the Carter Presidential Center is devoted to the peanut farmer who rose to become Georgia state governor and the 39th president of the USA. In addition to viewing film footage and a reconstruction of his Oval Office (where he spent "tedious hours" in budget meetings, and in his final hours of office negotiated the release of the hostages in Iran), you can read twelve-year-old Jimmy's school essay on health, in which he earnestly urges his readers to keep their teeth clean (Mon-Sat 9am-4.45pm, Sun noon-4.45pm; $5, under 17 free).

Northeast of here, beyond the yuppie Virginia-Highland restaurant district, the trek to Emory University 's campus is rewarded by the stylish Michael C. Carlos Museum , 571 S Kilgo St (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; $3 donation; tel 404/727-4282), which has a huge collection of fine art and antiquities from all continents, in an airy building designed by Michael Graves. Sub-Saharan African art is unusually well represented, including Nigerian headcrests woven with snake-like tendrils; among the extraordinary pre-Columbian collection, note the Andean Human as a Peanut

Midtown

Midtown stretches from Ponce de Leon Avenue, lined with funky restaurants, to 26th Street. In recent years, it has become dominated by massive skyscrapers - look out for One Atlantic Center , a spiky, futuristic monstrosity at 15th and Peachtree streets that was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. The wildly flamboyant Art Deco Fox Theater , 660 Peachtree St at Ponce de Leon (tel 404/881-2100), with its strong Moorish theme, should also not be missed. Unless you buy a ticket for one of its fairly mainstream theatrical shows, the only way to see the theater is on an organized tour (Mon, Wed & Thurs 10am, Sat 10am & 11am; $5).

A few blocks north, the huge Woodruff Arts Center includes the main branch of the High Museum of Art , 1280 Peachtree St NE (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; $8, free Thurs after 1pm; tel 404/773-HIGH, ). You'll find excellent contemporary and non-western exhibitions - particularly strong on African art - on display in the ultra-white glass-and-steel building, designed by Richard Meier. There's also a good giftshop, and a peaceful little espresso bar in the airy atrium