Berlin: area by area – kurfürstendamm - Zoologischer Garten

One of the largest in the world is among the most important sights in the city. One of the Germany's first zoos, it was opened in 1844 on the initiative of Alexander von Humboldt and the Africa researcher Lichtenstein, who served as the first director of the zoo.
The first inhabitants of the site, laid out by Peter Lenné, were animals gifted by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. from the menagerie and peasantry in the »Tiergarten. In the course of its history, the site and its enclosures have been rebuilt and expanded several times.

The Zoological Garden is now the most important animal collections in the world, with around 19,000 animals and some 1,400 different species. There is a beast of prey house, a hippo house and a nocturnal animal house, and the largest aviary in Europe.

Visitors can either enter the zoo through the exotically-designed Elephant Gate beside the aquarium in Budapester Straße, or through the Lion Gate on Hardenbergplatz, directly at Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten.