Perched on the southern slope of Mount Hollywood, Griffith Observatory looks out over the Los Angeles basin from the edge of Griffith Park, its white Art Deco domes a landmark visible from much of the city. Opened in 1935 and free to enter from the start, it was a gift to the public from the philanthropist Griffith J. Griffith, who wanted ordinary people to be able to look through a telescope and feel their place in the universe. The building is both a working observatory and a hands-on scien.....

Among the largest urban parks in North America, Griffith Park sprawls over more than 4,000 acres of rugged hillside at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, a vast tract of chaparral, oak and trails on the northern edge of Los Angeles. It was donated to the city in 1896 by Griffith J. Griffith, a mining magnate who wished to give residents a great public ground in the mould of the world's famous city parks. Unlike a manicured garden, much of the park remains wild, laced with mountain.....

Spelled out in giant white letters across the south face of Mount Lee, the Hollywood Sign is among the most recognised landmarks on earth, a shorthand for the film industry and the city beneath it. Each letter stands around fifteen metres tall, and the sign stretches roughly 110 metres across the hillside of Griffith Park, visible for miles across the Los Angeles basin. It was not always a civic emblem. The sign went up in 1923 as an advertisement reading HOLLYWOODLAND, promoting a hillside h.....