Meridian Hill Park

This landscaped park north of downtown, sometimes called Malcolm X Park, is celebrated for its Italian Renaissance and French-inspired design. Its centerpiece is a dramatic cascade of thirteen linked basins tumbling down a hillside, one of the longest such water features in North America. Statues of figures including Dante and Joan of Arc dot the grounds, and a broad upper terrace offers views south toward the city. On Sunday afternoons a long-running drum circle draws crowds to the upper lawn.