Founded in 1975 by Ansel Adams and then-university president John P. Schaefer, the center highlights 20C photography as an art form. Changing exhibitions draw from the work of Adams, Richard Avedon, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Philippe Halsman, Edward Weston ..

With more than 200 aircraft, this museum displays everything from a full replica of the Wright Brothers' 1903 Flyer to the SR-71 Blackbird, capable of speeds over 2,000mph. Visitors see military, private and commercial planes, including the Air Force..

The oldest US Catholic church still in use, San Xavier del Bac has been called the Sistine Chapel of the US by the man who restored Michelangelo's master work in Rome-and who supervised work on this San Xavier Indian Reservation mission. Founded in 1..

Interactive exhibits deal with mirrors, vacuums, holograms, kinetics and other basic physics. Visitors touch rare stones, including moon rocks, in an extensive mineral exhibit. An observatory offers stargazing through a 16in telescope.

Over 35,000 students attend this 352-acre campus 1mi northeast of downtown. A top research institution in optics and computer software, it has several museums. Dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) and garbology (the study of cultures by analyzing refu..

This anthropology museum specializes in cultures of the Southwest and Mexico. In the north building, the Paths of Life exhibit interprets origins, history and modern lifestyles of 10 desert cultures-the Seri, Tarahumara, Yaqui, Tohono O'odham, Yuman,..

Paintings by Rembrandt, Picasso and O'Keeffe, and Jacques Lipchitz sculptures, highlight a collection of 4,000 works, dating from the 15C to contemporary.

Exhibits include re-created O'odham, Mexican and Anglo-American homes of the 1870s and a replica of El Presidio. The Arizona Mining Hall features an underground copper mine that illustrates mining, smelting and production processes. Other AHS museums..

This incongruously bold, colorful, contemporary museum has an intriguing collection of avant-garde art and photography in a series of descending galleries, plus fine 19-20C American works (Thomas Moran, Arthur Dove, Anton Refreigier, Marsden Hartley)..

Archaeologists lead half-day tours to such prehistoric sites as Catalina State Park, where in a 2.5sq-mi area the center has uncovered 42 different sites-including Hohokam petroglyphs, a mesquite bean-grinding site, and a 1,500-year-old village cover..

A shuttle bus offers 45min tours through this Coronado National Forest canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains of northeast Tucson. Once visited by mammoths and soldiers, who rode from Fort Lowell to swim, the canyon was "civilized" in the 1..

Hollywood in the desert, this 1880s Western town has been the location for more than 350 movies and TV shows since it was built in 1939 by Columbia Pictures as the set for Arizona, starring William Holden. The Old West as perceived by video drones wa..

Atop 6,875ft Kitt Peak is the world's largest collection of optical telescopes, funded by the National Science Foundation and managed by a consortium of 29 universities. Tours (1hr) begin at the visitor center and canvass a mind-boggling array of obs..

This restored 1850s adobe in El Presidio is home to six shops selling Latin American folk art, Native American tribal art, imports from Mexico and regional crafts, plus a pair of restaurants. Over the years, this adobe-its ceilings supported by sagua..

This 5.5-acre urban oasis, founded in 1931, features a series of intimate gardens with cacti, wildflowers and Native American crops. There are also a children's garden and sensory garden. A xeriscape garden demonstrates landscaping in an arid climate..

More than 400 species of stuffed and preserved animals are displayed in galleries and dioramas. About half are antelope, sheep and deer heads in the Comparative Species Gallery. Sections on animal anatomy and on insects, including Africanized "k..

Nature trails wind through 49 acres of desert flora-home to a variety of wildlife-surrounding the adobe Exhibit House. Devonshire teas are served on a plant-filled patio of the West House. Events include concerts, art shows and a summer tribute to th..