What with the prominent position of the United States in world affairs, people around the globe may be excused for thinking they already “know” the US capital, Washington D.C. It’s always in the focus of world events, and images of the White House, the huge Capitol and the Pentagon seen almost daily in TV newscasts, leave the impression that it’s “only” stage for politics.

This impression is misleading. Visitors to Washington D.C. – the “District of Columbia” designed by Pierre L’Enfant on what had been swampland along the Potomac River and named after the first US president, George Washington – will soon discover that the city has much more to offer.

Here are three reasons to explore it all:

It was a Briton, James Smithson, who was responsible for the 11 world-class museums along the National Mall, which stretched from the Capitol, past the towering obelisk of the Washington Monument and on to the Reflecting Pool and Lincoln Memorial. A mineralogist and chemist, Smithson left his estate to the US when he died in 1829 with the aim of founding “under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men”. What made this gift all the more curious was the fact that Smithson himself had never set foot on American soil in his lifetime.

Entry is free of charge to the museums on the National Mall – including, among others, the National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of American History, National Museum of the American Indian, National Museum of Natural History, and the National Portrait Gallery.

But besides the National Mall, Washington features any number of other unique museums. One of them is the International Spy Museum which, covering several floors, shows the work of the world’s secret services and their work.

In the quaint old town of Alexandria, you’ll find the George Washington Town House, a replica of the home and office of the first US president.

A good way to sight-see among the many monuments and memorials is to take a bicycle tour with Georgia Lucas. Peddling at a leisurely pace along the broad bicycling paths, she will raise her hand to signal for the group to stop. The first time it is the Jefferson Memorial dedicated to the third US president and the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.

It’s an edifice of columns, bright marble and an impressive cuppola, beneath which is a 6.5m-tall bronze statue of the early American statesman.

Totally different is the memorial to the 32nd president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the only man to be elected to four terms to the highest office of the land. The memorial is lined by trees, and is barrier-free, in a reference to the fact that Roosevelt, a polio victim, had been confined to a wheelchair.

Further along, and like the Jefferson and Roosevelt memorials likewise located on the Tidal – a small lake between the mall and the Potomac River – is a newer monument. This time not a president, but the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and civil rights champion Dr. Martin Luther King, who was murdered in 1968.

The next stop along the “Monuments and Memorials Tour”, by the well-paved network of bicycle paths, is the Lincoln Memorial located at the western end of the mall. Architect Henry Bacon took his inspiration for it from the Parthenon in Athens. The idea was to commemorate Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president who guided the country through its Civil War, with a memorial recalling the cradle of western democracy.

On the return route, the bicycle tour takes in the important war memorials on the Mall: the Vietnam Veterans and Korean War Veterans Memorials as well as the National World War II Memorial. The Washington Monument atop a small hillock is the last stop on the tour. From here the vista is one of the White House down below, the majestic Capitol and the entire National Mall.

There is also a curiosity to be discovered in the 169m-tall obelisk, pointed out by tour guide Georgia: “During the construction, they ran out of money. Which is why they later had to finish it with different stones.”

The Potomac River is a good 600km long and empties into the Chesapeake Bay on the Atlantic coast. Although the river flows along the western edge of the city, for many decades it was directly reachable by the public in only a few places.

District Wharf on the river was a place where goods were shipped and traded. It was an industrial area where the poor lived. Crime was an everyday occurrence. Finally, Washingtonians decided to make life along the waterfront more liveable and launched a renewal project costing billions.

The result was the totally new urban area of District Wharf. In 2017 the first phase of renewal was completed. The area stretching about a mile long in the south-west district of the capital and not far from the National Mall, contains apartments, office buildings, restaurants, hotels and any amount of room for just taking a stroll. What remains is the Fish Market – an institution in the US capital. Fishermen have been bringing their catch to sell at the market without interruption since 1805. – dpa