The Central Business District is Sydney's dense commercial core, a grid of high-rise offices, department stores and arcades running south from Circular Quay to Central Station. It is where the city works rather than where it relaxes, but threaded through the towers is a surprising amount worth seeing: grand Victorian shopping arcades, the green lungs of Hyde Park and the Domain, and some of the country's best museums and galleries along its eastern edge.
George Street is the main spine, now largely given over to a light-rail line and pedestrians, with the Queen Victoria Building and the Strand Arcade preserving the ornate retail of the 1890s. Martin Place, a pedestrian plaza lined with banks and the old General Post Office, is the civic heart, while Pitt Street Mall is the busiest shopping strip. To the east, Hyde Park's fig-lined avenues lead to the sandstone bulk of St Mary's Cathedral and, beyond, the Royal Botanic Garden and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
The CBD is also where the harbour meets the city. Sydney Tower rises above the centre with the highest public view in town, and on the northwestern waterfront the reclaimed headland park of Barangaroo has given the district a new foreshore of native bushland and restaurants. Most visitors pass through the CBD constantly; it rewards a slower wander between the towers.