Memphis - Category of Backgroud

Memphis International Airport is ten miles south of downtown a long and complicated bus trip, but just fifteen minutes by the Yellow Cabs limo/van service ($10; tel 901/577-7777) or taxi ($2025). Greyhound buses stop at 203 Union Ave in downtown, while the Amtrak station at 545 S Main St is in a particularly seedy and unsafe area on the southern edge of downtown.

Slow and infrequent Memphis Area Transit Authority buses cover nearly all the city (tel 901/274-6282); more useful is the downtown trolley service (tel 901/274-6282) that runs along the Main Street Mall from the Pyramid to Beale Street and the Civil Rights Museum, until 6pm on Sundays and after midnight on all other days (60 flat fare; day pass $2.50).

Carriage tours at $30 per half-hour or $50 per hour (for 2 people) start from the Peabody and Crowne Plaza hotels, among others (MonFri 5pm1am, Sat & Sun 1pm1am; tel 901/834-9945). American Dream Safari (tel 901/527-8870) offers driving tours in a 1955 Cadillac that range from a gospel service at Al Green's church ($60 including lunch) up to week-long blues pilgrimages into the Delta. Sternwheelers offer ninety-minute sightseeing trips of the mighty Mississippi for $12.50, leaving Riverside Drive at Monroe Avenue (MarchNov daily 2.30pm & 5.30pm as well as dinner cruises in season; tel 901/527-5694).

The cotton-trading capital of the Delta, MEMPHIS , perched above the Mississippi two hundred miles west of Nashville and three hundred south of St Louis, is one of the great destinations of the South. Visitors come from all over the world to celebrate the city that virtually invented blues, soul and rock 'n' roll, as well as to chow down in the unrivaled barbecue capital of the nation. A visit to Memphis, the home of the Sun and Stax record labels, with its frequent festivals and vigorous nightlife, feels like an invitation to share in a genuine and enduring local culture.

Culturally and geographically, Memphis has more in common with the deltalands of Mississippi and Arkansas than with the rest of Tennessee. Founded in 1819 and named for Egypt's ancient Nile capital, its fortunes rose and fell with cotton . The Confederate defeat that ended the war briefly plunged it into economic chaos, and severe yellow fever epidemics didn't help, but thanks to its potential for river and rail transportation Memphis soon bounced back. The nation's second largest inland port became a major stopping-off point for migrants escaping the poverty of the Delta, and many stayed, significantly shaping the city's identity.

For a couple of decades after the 1968 assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Memphis tottered on the brink of decline. In the past decade, however, the city has regenerated itself yet again, its new self-confidence typified by the extraordinary 321ft stainless steel Pyramid that now dominates the riverfront skyline. The famous blues corridor of Beale Street is booming once more, perhaps a little ersatz but always entertaining, while Elvis Presley's Graceland a refreshing change from the usual "gracious southern home" provides an intimate and exuberant glimpse of Memphis's most famous son.

The spacious and modern Tennessee Welcome Center by the Pyramid, complete with nine-foot bronze Elvis, facing Mud Island at river level at 119 N Riverside Drive and Adams Avenue is open 24 hours a day every day. For advance information on the city call 901/543-5333 or visit www.memphistravel.com . The post office is at 555 S Third St at Calhoun Avenue (MonFri 8.30am5.30pm, Sat 10am2pm; tel 901/521-2245; zip code 38101).