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All the United States Tennessee Memphis

The Atlas Obscura Guide To Memphis

24 Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in Memphis, Tennessee

Updated April 2, 2025

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Unusual Attractions in Memphis

The Crystal Shrine Grotto

Memphis, Tennessee

The Crystal Shrine Grotto

This head-spinningly bizarre Depression-era art cave is wall-to-wall quartz and Jesus.
The National Civil Rights Museum

Memphis, Tennessee

National Civil Rights Museum

The hotel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot is now a museum dedicated to his work.
One of the Peabody Ducks takes the stage.

Memphis, Tennessee

Peabody Hotel Duck March

Every day a troupe of pampered water fowl walk the red carpet to their favorite fountain.
Model of the Mississippi at Mud Island River Park

Memphis, Tennessee

Mud Island River Park

A Memphis park where you can walk the whole Mississippi River in one go.

Memphis, Tennessee

Silky O'Sullivan's

Home to drunken tower-climbing goats... seriously.
Entrance on Union Ave, just around the corner from Beale Street

Memphis, Tennessee

Sun Studio

This Memphis recording studio launched the careers of Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley.
The Jungle Room at Graceland.

Memphis, Tennessee

The Jungle Room at Graceland

Elvis's own personal tropical hideaway.
St. Peter’s Spiritual Temple

Memphis, Tennessee

St. Peter’s Spiritual Temple (Voodoo Village)

A reclusive Memphis neighborhood is home to decades worth of misunderstood Masonic folk art.
See All 24 Things To Do in Memphis

Cool Places to Eat & Drink in Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee

Silky O'Sullivan's

Home to drunken tower-climbing goats... seriously.
Earnestine & Hazel’s.

Memphis, Tennessee

Earnestine & Hazel's

The juke joint where legendary soul artists ate, drank, and made merry.
Tangy and fragrant with hickory smoke, the pulled pork is outstanding.

Memphis, Tennessee

Payne’s Bar-B-Q

Line up for a hickory-smoked BBQ bologna sandwich at this family-run institution.
Fried catfish commands center stage on a plate with turnip greens, pinto peans, and cornbread.

Memphis, Tennessee

The Four Way

For more than 75 years, this living piece of history has been serving exceptional soul food.
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Atlas Obscura Itineraries

The Explorer’s Guide to Road Tripping Down Highway 61

Highway 61 is known as “The Blues Highway” as it makes its way from New Orleans to Memphis, following the Mississippi River through lands forged over eons, from the coastal swamps of Louisiana to the alluvial plains of the Delta, the highway connecting these landscapes to the human tales etched into the soil, telling the story of the Deep South through a journey of migration, transformation, and enduring spirit. In New Orleans, where I was born and raised, Highway 61 was the end of my known world. It was a road of short-stay motels, pawn shops, Bingo parlors, and a pervading sense of danger. It was the boundary of my childhood, of all that was safe and familiar. Years later, as an adult, I would come to know the highway as a conduit to the past, an artery of profound historical and cultural significance, invention and reinvention, of human dreams pinned to its asphalt, ever following the river like an acolyte to the great hand that carved both into the mythos of the South.

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Edna Nicole & Delta Ave command the room at Red’s in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Explore Memphis, Tennessee

A
24
Music 6
Museums 5
Animals 3
Elvis 3
Bars 2
Food 2
Shops 2
Cemeteries 2
Black History 2
Hotels 2
Restaurants 2
Art 2

Memphis Leaderboard

Places Added

  1. S Lee
    1
  2. nbj914
    1
  3. TLara
    1
  4. tkillems
    1
  5. collinqburke
    1
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Add an unusual place to Memphis.

Places Edited

  1. Collector of Experiences
    13
  2. Rachel
    3
  3. Erik
    3
  4. stevenrosen
    3
  5. tylercole
    3
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Improve the Atlas with edits and photos.

Places Visited

  1. Erik
    21
  2. 7oddgr
    17
  3. jeremyspeakes
    16
  4. barbaradaly
    16
  5. jsadlerjr
    16
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Recent Memphis Activity

  • cusickrachlea

    wants to go to Memphis Pyramid

    2 days ago
  • cusickrachlea

    wants to go to The Jungle Room at Graceland

    2 days ago
  • DrJennT

    has been to Memphis Pyramid

    2 days ago
  • DrJennT

    wants to go to Overton Park Shell

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  • DrJennT

    wants to go to Memphis Gong Chamber

    2 days ago

Stories About Memphis

One of the Peabody’s pampered ducks descends the red-carpeted stairs from the lobby fountain.

What It Takes To Be This Luxury Memphis Hotel’s ‘Duckmaster’

Every duck march needs its duckmaster.
by Lorraine Gibson
July 18, 2024
A royal chariot…

For Sale: Elvis Presley's Dusty Old Lincoln Limo

The King kind of had a thing for cars.
by Matthew Taub
August 7, 2019
Joe Hill Louis, aka The Be-Bop Boy (right) was one of WDIA’s DJs in the early 1950s.

How America Got Its First Black Radio Station

In 1948, Memphis channel WDIA became a community voice and a rock 'n' roll star-maker.
by Teresa Bitler
June 18, 2019

Lists Featuring Memphis

The House of the Temple.
Statue of George Washington

Novus Ordo Seclorum: 14 Places to Unearth Masonic Secrets

Your best bets for gaining insight into the real history of Freemasonry.

14

Including Zedekiah's Cave, Masonic Lodge of the Andaz Hotel, and House of the Temple

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