The Sackler Gallery is dedicated to the study and exhibition of the arts of Asia from the Neolithic period to the present. Major strengths of the expanding collection are Chinese jades and bronzes (one of the most extensive and important in the world..

Located across the street from the National Portrait Gallery, the Spy Museum complex of historic 19C buildings houses the world's largest collection of international espionage artifacts on display to the public. Begin your adventure on the third floo..

This museum might be thought of as the nation's family album. Modeled after its namesake in London, the National Portrait Gallery conserves some 20,000 paintings sculptures, photographs, engravings and drawings of "men and women who have made si..

Traditionally the commercial heart of Washington, Downtown reflects the flavor of the city's past and present. Large office buildings and retail complexes tower above 19C shopfronts, and the process of revitalization is apparent everywhere. Sights co..

Opened in September 2004, the NMAI is the first national museum dedicated to Native Americans and the first new museum on the Mall since 1987. Fifteen years in creation, the museum holds 825,000 objects representing more than 1,200 indigenous culture..

Under the 48-year leadership (1924-1972) of director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI became the supreme federal authority in matters of domestic crime. As the principal investigative arm of the Justice Department, the FBI traces its beginnings to 1908, when..

A deeply moving, wholly absorbing history lesson awaits visitors to this large museum-research complex, conceived "to commemorate the dead and to educate the living." Occupying nearly 2 acres of land adjacent to the Bureau of Engraving and ..

In a city now dominated by federal museums, the Corcoran Gallery of Art can claim to be he capital's most venerable private gallery. Although it houses a fine collection of European art, the Corcoran is primarily known as a showcase for American art ..

Situated at the foot of Capitol Hill, this lush conservatory serves as the nation's living plant museum. The first greenhouse was established in 1842 to conserve the collection of exotic specimens brought from the South Seas by a team of US explorers..

Positioned directly across the street from the Capitol, this white marble monument to the supremacy of law houses the highest court in the land. Within its walls the third branch of government exercises its mandate to protect and interpret the spirit..

A renowned Beaux-Arts landmark, the original Library of Congress is reputedly Washington's most richly ornamented building. The largest library in existence, it retains in its varied and ever-growing collections more than 18 million books, as well as..

Housed in an undistinguished 1960s government office building, these reception rooms have been transformed into architectural masterpieces of 18C interior design. They are furnished with one of the most impressive collections of American decorative a..

Once industrialized riverfront, this bottomland west of the White House was transformed after World War II into an administrative quarter. George Washington University, the Watergate complex and the John F. Kennedy Center or the Performing Arts are a..

A gleaming horizontal mass, ranking as one of the country's leading cultural institutions, this "living memorial" to the 35th US president is home to the National Symphony Orchestra. A wide spectrum of world-class entertainment - from tenor..

Renowned for its outstanding collection of Byzantine and pre-Columbian art, this gracious museum and research institution is situated at the heart of what has been called "America's most civilized square mile." The 16-acre estate set on a r..

The Phillips Collection, the nation's first museum of modern art, maintains a choice collection of some 3,000 outstanding works by prominent American and European artists. The works are not arranged chronologically, but earlier pieces are generally f..

Georgetown is the terminus for the old Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which runs 185 miles through 75 lift locks to Cumberland, Maryland. In 1971 the entire canal was designated a National Historic Park. At lift lock no. 3, a bust of Supreme Court Justic..

When Washintonians think of Georgetown, they usually think of nightlife. It's true that DC's choicest neighborhood contains more than its share of bars and clubs, but beyond the club scene there are wonderful restaurants and upscale shopping surround..

With plants and landscaped environments an integral part of its concept, this "biopark" exhibits more than 2,000 wild animals and serves as a research institution devoted to the study, preservation and breeding of threatened species. Nearly..

Officially named the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, the imposing Gothic-style edifice overlooking the city from its 57-acre site on Mount St. Alban is popularly known as the Washington Cathedral or National Cathedral. This magnificent 20..