It's been more than 150 years since Atlanta was first chartered as a city, but those years have been action-packed. Though still young compared to many other U.S. cities, Atlanta has seen a lot of history.

Though we Atlantans are always excited about the new and improved, we're also very curious about those places that speak to us about where our city and its people came from. All around the modern metropolis you'll find vivid reminders of other eras with their own triumphs, tragedies, heroes and villains. We've listed a number of places where bright glimpses of yesterday can still be seen today.

But proud as we are of our history, we live in the present and look toward the future. And while we're looking, we take time out for fun. This chapter highlights a variety of popular attractions that draw visitors year after year. You'll find more inviting destinations in The Arts, Parks and Recreation and Daytrips and Weekend Getaways chapters. Don't forget: Always call first to verify hours, dates of operation and admission prices. Funsters on a budget, please note our Fun Freebies section at the end of the chapter. Have a great time!

The APEX, African-American Panoramic Experience, Museum is housed in a small building beside the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History and across the street from the headquarters of the Atlanta Life Insurance Co. Eventually, plans call for the museum to have its own specially designed 97,000-square-foot facility on this site; its different sections will spotlight African-American achievement in various areas of endeavor, such as politics, entertainment and sports.

The present facility includes a replica of an Atlanta streetcar where visitors sit to watch a film, with narration by Julian Bond and a dramatic reading by Cicely Tyson that tells of Auburn Avenue's rich history as a center of black commerce and culture. Exhibits of African- and slavery-era artifacts occupy the museum's main room along with a replica of Yates & Milton, a black-owned drug store that originated on Auburn and eventually had four Atlanta locations. Among other items, the gift shop offers a reasonably priced and fascinating pictorial history book, Sweet Auburn -- Street of Pride, published by the museum. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for students and seniors. The museum is open 10 AM to 5 PM, Tuesday through Saturday.

Three miles from downtown stands a living museum to nature and gardening that is more passion than pastime for a great many Atlantans. Perched on 30 acres overlooking midtown's Piedmont Park, the Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG) features 15 acres of outdoor display gardens and the 15-acre Storza Woods, one of the few remaining urban forests in Atlanta.

More than 3,000 ornamental plants flourish in the display gardens. Special sections devoted to roses, herbs, irises and summer bulbs crop up as you stroll through the innovatively landscaped grounds. Meditate a moment in the peaceful Japanese Garden, or delight your olfactory sense in the Fragrance Garden. Stroll along sidewalks under vine-covered arbors, or relax near one of the cooling fountains. The ABG is full of pleasant, shaded seating areas, including the Alston Overlook, a covered structure nestled among the trees. Sculpture placed throughout the grounds enhances the natural beauty of the plants and flowers.

The Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory is a $5.5 million glass house that is home to an assortment of endangered and valuable plants. The Tropical Room's steamy, leafy environment makes you feel like you've left Atlanta for the Amazon. The Desert Room transports you through an arid spectacle of lush succulents. Adventurous types will love the special plants section with scary, dangling Ant Plants and a display of carnivores including the Venus Fly Trap. A sign dares you to stick a finger into one of the plants' hungry leaves. But you won't be invited to fondle the 12 varieties of poison dart frogs from Central and South America that live in three large terrariums filled with rainforest plants.

Dorothy and J.B. Fuqua traveled for two years to study 15 conservatories around the world before building the setting for this worldwide collection. Tiny, colorful birds flit among the trees and dart beneath a waterfall. The visual feast ranges from blooming orchids and unusual bromeliads to sprawling cacti and coffee plants. You can catch a spectacular view of part of the Atlanta skyline as you approach the conservatory from the ABG display gardens.

The ABG offers classes, lectures, symposia and demonstrations for ABG members and nonmembers. For information on ABG classes and tours, call the Education Department at (404) 876-5859, extension 226.

New in town and seeking fellow rose garden enthusiasts? ABG will refer you to an appropriate group. Many garden clubs and specialty societies meet regularly at ABG, with exhibits and competitions scheduled year round. The annual Southeast Flower Show presents an entire range of garden-related events such as artistic design displays, children's activities and more to benefit ABG (see our Festivals and Events chapter).

If you have questions about a particular plant or gardening method, call the Plant Hotline. A volunteer horticulturist or master gardener will be on hand, or return your call. The Sheffield Botanical Library stocks some 2,000 books and 80 periodicals for on-site library research only.

The ABG's Museum Shop is filled with unexpected finds for the gardeners on your gift list. Or what the heck, buy something for yourself! From April through October, you can lunch on sandwiches, salads and desserts on Lanier Terrace, overlooking the Rose Garden.

The Atlanta Botanical Garden is in the northwest corner of Piedmont Park. The entrance is on Piedmont Road between 14th Street and Monroe Drive, across from the intersection of Piedmont Avenue and The Prado. The garden allows child strollers everywhere but in the Conservatory. Limited parking is available. For public transportation, take MARTA to the Arts Center Station where you may transfer to the No. 36 North Decatur bus. On Sunday take the No. 31 Lindbergh bus from MARTA's Lindbergh or Five Points stations.

Atlanta Botanical Garden is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 AM to 6 PM, November through March; from April through October, the Garden stays open from 9 AM to 7 PM. We recommend you allow at least an hour to tour the garden. The Fuqua Conservatory and the Museum Shop open at 10 AM. The garden is closed every Monday and on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Admission costs $6 for adults, $5 for seniors older than 65, $3 for children ages 6 to 12 and students with ID. Children younger than 6 and Atlanta Botanical Garden members get in free. Groups of 15 or more enjoy special admission rates if they schedule their visit in advance. After 3 PM every Thursday, everybody gets in free.

At the Atlanta Cyclorama, the scene never changes: It is forever the blistering afternoon of July 22, 1864, and out by the Georgia Railroad line 2 miles east of Five Points, thousands of men are locked in a desperate battle that will lead to the fall of Atlanta and the Confederacy's defeat.

Housed in a massive, custom-built structure in Grant Park, the Cyclorama is an amazingly vivid re-creation of the Battle of Atlanta. Taller than a five-story building and 358 feet in circumference, the 9,334-pound oil painting on canvas is considered the world's largest and has quite an interesting history.

Huge, round panorama paintings, most often depicting battle scenes, were once a popular form of entertainment. In 1885 the Milwaukee-based American Panorama Studio brought a team of expert European panorama artists to Atlanta. From a 40-foot observation tower constructed near the present-day intersection of DeKalb and Moreland avenues, the artists surveyed the battlefield, which had changed little in the two decades since the war. During their months of research in Atlanta, the artists sought the war recollections of numerous veterans and citizens.

The artists worked for 22 months in the studio to complete the painting, which was first exhibited in Minneapolis in 1887 and then brought to Atlanta in 1892 and exhibited in a drum-shaped wooden building on Edgewood Avenue. Patronage waned by the following year, and the painting was sold at a sheriff's auction for $1,100. It was eventually donated to the City of Atlanta in 1898 and displayed in a wooden building in Grant Park. Fear of fire led to the construction of an artificial stone structure, which was designed in the neoclassical style by John Francis Downing and dedicated in 1921. A huge central column was both the viewing platform and the roof's support. During the Depression, noted Atlanta historian and artist Wilbur Kurtz directed a restoration of the painting, and Work Projects Administration artists crafted the many foreground figures of soldiers, horses and wagons that make the Cyclorama a three-dimensional experience.

By 1979 the deteriorating Cyclorama was attracting more rats than tourists and badly needed extensive repairs. Noted conservator Gustav A. Berger's restoration team undertook the task. But the artists needed access to the fragile painting's back as well as its front, and it could not be removed from its specially designed building. Ingeniously, they removed a section of the structure's wall and hung the painting from an overhead track; this allowed them to rotate various sections into the work area as needed.

The project was not only tedious but downright dangerous, since the canvas had been coated with lead, arsenic and other toxins to repel insects. The diorama figures were restored under the direction of Joseph Hurt, a descendent of Troup Hurt, whose large brick house dominates the painting. The rather odd-looking modern space-frame system that spans the building's roof was necessitated when the load-bearing central column was replaced with a better viewing area. The $11 million restoration was completed in 1982.

Your visit to the Cyclorama begins with a 14-minute film narrated by James Earl Jones that features hundreds of costumed Civil War re-enactors. The film recounts Confederate generals Johnston and Hood's increasingly desperate efforts to protect Atlanta from Sherman's advancing troops. The guide then directs everyone upstairs to the Cyclorama. There, surrounded by the battle scene, the audience sits on a tiered viewing platform that slowly revolves as various parts of the painting come alive with computerized narration, light and sound effects.

For the most dramatic experience, skip the Cyclorama's front rows and head up to the back section. These high seats afford a wider view of the entire battle scene and better capture the original panoramic effect. It's fun to bring a pair of binoculars to spot small details in the painting and see where the artists attached the figures to the canvas.

During the gala events surrounding the 1939 world premiere of Gone With the Wind in Atlanta, Mayor William B. Hartsfield took the movie's stars to see the Cyclorama. Clark Gable is said to have remarked, "The only thing missing to make the Cyclorama perfect is Rhett Butler." In short order, the face of one figure -- a fallen Union soldier in the foreground -- was changed to a likeness of the famous actor.

The Cyclorama's museum has numerous informative displays about the Civil War and the painting itself. A half-hour video explains the tremendous restoration project. The museum also houses the locomotive Texas that was used in The Great Locomotive Chase (see the listing for Kennesaw Civil War Museum under Cobb County in this chapter). The gift shop has an extensive collection of Civil War books as well as souvenirs. It's worth mentioning that the Cyclorama does not espouse the Confederate point of view: It was restored during the tenure of Atlanta's first African-American mayor, Maynard Jackson, and its prevailing mood is anti-war, not pro-South.

The Atlanta Cyclorama is open daily 9:20 AM to 4:30 PM from Labor Day through May 31 and until 5:30 PM during the summer. It's closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Presentations begin every 30 minutes throughout the day. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors 60 and older, $3 for children 6 to 12 and free for children younger than 6.