Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers.

Downtown Memphis rises from a bluff along the Mississippi River, and the city sprawls outward over southwest Tennessee and into northern Mississippi and eastern Arkansas. Several large parks are scattered through the city, notably Overton Park in Midtown. The city is a transportation hub and Mississippi River crossing for Interstate 40 (I-40), (east-west), Interstate 55 (north-south) and numerous freight railroads that serve the city.

Cultural Events

One of the largest celebrations the city has is Memphis in May. The month-long series of events promotes Memphis' heritage and outreach of its people far beyond the city's borders. There are four main events, the Beale Street Music Festival, International Week, the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, and the Sunset Symphony. The World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest is the largest pork barbecue cooking contest in the world.

Carnival Memphis, formerly known as the Memphis Cotton Carnival, is an annual series of parties and festivities in the month of June that salutes various aspects of Memphis and its industries. An annual King and Queen of Carnival are secretly selected to reign over Carnival activities. The African-American community staged a parallel event known as the Cotton Makers Jubilee from 1935 to 1982, when it merged with Carnival Memphis.

An arts festival, the Cooper-Young Festival, is held annually in September in the Cooper-Young district of Midtown Memphis. The event draws artists from all over North America, and includes art sales, contests, and displays.

The Arts

Memphis is the home of founders and establishers of various American music genres, including Blues, Gospel, Rock n' Roll, Buck, Crunk, and "sharecropper" country music (in contrast to the "rhinestone" country sound of Nashville). Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and B. B. King were all getting their starts in Memphis in the 1950s. They are respectively dubbed the "King" of Country, Rock n' Roll, and Blues.

Well-known writers from Memphis include American Civil War historian Shelby Foote and playwright Tennessee Williams. Novelist John Grisham grew up in nearby DeSoto County, Mississippi and many of his books are set in Memphis.

Business

The city's central location has led to much of its business development. Located on the Mississippi River and intersected by several freight railroads and two Interstate highways, Memphis is ideally located for commerce among the transportation and shipping industry. River barges are unloaded onto trucks and trains. The city is home to Memphis International Airport, the world's busiest cargo airport, which serves as the primary hub for FedEx Express shipping and as a secondary hub for Northwest Airlines.

Memphis is the home of nine Fortune 500 companies. These include the corporate headquarters of FedEx Corporation, AutoZone Incorporated, International Paper, and Thomas & Betts. In addition, Memphis is home to the pharmaceutical/healthcare firm Schering-Plough Corporation, serving as the company's research & development center.

The entertainment and film industry have discovered Memphis in recent years. Several major motion pictures have been filmed in Memphis, including Making the Grade (1984), Mystery Train (1989), The Firm (1993), Cast Away (2000), Forty Shades of Blue (2005), Walk the Line (2005), Hustle and Flow (2006), Soul Men (2008), and The Blind Side (2009). The 1992 television movie Memphis, starring Memphis native Cybill Shepherd, who also served as executive producer and writer, was also filmed in Memphis.

In 2000 Inc. magazine rated Memphis in the top eight of the 50 best major U.S. metro areas for starting and growing a business.

Museums and Art Collections

Many museums of interest are located in Memphis.

National Civil Rights Museum
The National Civil Rights Museum is located in the former Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. It includes a historical overview of the American civil rights movement.

Brooks Museum of Art
The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, founded in 1916, is the oldest and largest fine art museum in the state of Tennessee. The Brooks' permanent collection includes works from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque eras to British, French Impressionists, and 20th-century artists.

Graceland
Graceland, the former home of Rock 'n' Roll legend Elvis Presley, is one of the most visited houses in the United States (second only to the White House), attracting over 600,000 domestic and international visitors a year. Featured at Graceland are two of Presley's private airplanes, his extensive automobile and motorcycle collection and other Elvis memorabilia. On November 7, 1991 Graceland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Pink Palace
The Pink Palace Museum serves as the Mid-South's major science and historical museum, and features exhibits ranging from archeology to chemistry. It includes America's third largest planetarium and an IMAX Theatre. One exhibit features a replica of the original Piggly Wiggly store, the first self-service grocery store, commemorating the invention of the supermarket by Memphian Clarence Saunders in 1916.

Memphis Walk of Fame
The Memphis Walk of Fame is a public exhibit located in the Beale Street historic district, which is modeled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but is designated exclusively for Memphis musicians, singers, writers, and composers. Honorees include W. C. Handy, B. B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, and Alberta Hunter among others.
Mud Island Mississippi River Park (2006)

Mud Island River Park
Mud Island River Park and Mississippi River Museum is located on Mud Island in downtown Memphis. The Park is noted for its River Walk. The River walk is a 2112:1 scale working model showing 1000 mi (1600 km) of the Lower Mississippi River, from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. 30 in (75 cm) in the model equal 1 mi (1.6 km) of the Mississippi River. The Walk stretches roughly 0.5 mi (800 m), allowing visitors to walk in the water and see models of cities and bridges along the way.

Victorian Village
Victorian Village is a historic district of Memphis featuring a series of fine Victorian-era mansions, some of which are open to the public as museums.

Cotton Museum
The Cotton Museum is a museum that opened in March 2006 on the old trading floor of the Memphis Cotton Exchange at 65 Union Avenue in downtown Memphis.

Stax Museum
Stax Museum is a museum located in Memphis, Tennessee, at 926 McLemore Avenue, the former location of Stax Records. The original building, a converted movie theatre where artists such as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & the MG's, Sam & Dave and many others recorded throughout the 60's and 70's, was torn down, but the original front was reconstructed on the original property. It is operated by Soulsville USA, which also operates the adjacent Stax Music Academy. The original Satellite Record Shop was also reconstructed beside it. It is the only museum in the United States to be devoted entirely to soul music.

Parks

Major Memphis parks include W.C. Handy Park, Tom Lee Park, Audubon Park, Overton Park including the Old Forest Arboretum of Overton Park, the Lichterman Nature Center - a nature learning center, and the Memphis Botanic Garden.

Shelby Farms park, located at the eastern edge of the city, is one of the largest urban parks in America.

Other Points of Interest

Beale Street
Blues fans can visit Beale Street, which used to be the center of the Black community, where a young B.B. King used to play his guitar. He occasionally appears there at the club bearing his name, which he partially owns. Street performers play live music, and bars and clubs feature live entertainment until dawn. In 2008, Beale Street was the most visited tourist attraction in the state of Tennessee.

Sun Studio
Sun Studio is available for tour, which is where Elvis Presley first recorded "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". Other famous musicians who got their start at Sun include Johnny Cash, Rufus Thomas, Charlie Rich, Howlin' Wolf, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. It now contains a museum as well as the still-functioning studio.

Memphis Zoo
The Memphis Zoo, which is located in midtown Memphis, features many exhibits of mammals, birds, fish, and amphibians from all over the world. The Zoo's Giant panda exhibit is one of only five in North America.

Peabody Hotel
The Peabody Hotel is well-known for the famous "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop, making the journey to the hotel lobby in a daily "March of Ducks" ritual.

Other Memphis attractions include the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, the FedExForum and Mississippi riverboat day cruises.