Climb the wide steps between the columns and there he sits, huge and calm in white marble, gazing out down the Reflecting Pool toward the Washington Monument and the Capitol.

The memorial

The Lincoln Memorial honours Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, at the western end of the National Mall. Designed by Henry Bacon in the form of a classical temple, it was dedicated on 30 May 1922. Daniel Chester French designed the great statue in 1920, carved in marble by the Piccirilli brothers; Jules Guérin painted the interior murals. Doric columns line the outside, and the inside walls carry two of Lincoln's speeches: the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address.

I have a dream

The memorial has often been a symbolic centre for civil rights. On 28 August 1963, at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech from its steps. It is run by the National Park Service, is open 24 hours a day, and draws more than seven million visitors a year.

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  Lincoln statue Daniel Chester French.
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  Gettysburg Address Carved inside.
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  Reflecting Pool View east to the Washington Monument.
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  Nearby Vietnam, Korean War and World War II memorials.