The old part of the city from the direction of Krasnodar is limited by Karl Marx Street. She is considered a kind of pedestrian Arbat of Rostov-on-Don. There are many restaurants, cafes, shops, souvenir shops, and art galleries. A few shops from the central market are located here. At the intersection of Karl Marx and Shaumyan streets, there is a monument to the founder of the city, the ataman of the Don Cossack army Dmitry Efimovich Efremov. Nearby, at the corner of the street on the Shaumyana 47, you can see a beautiful sculptural composition on the facade of a residential building. This is the work of Rostov sculptor S. Oleshnya, made in 1984.
At the end of Karl Marx Street, Rostov-on-Don turns into a park area. Immediately behind the square named after the revolution of 1905 is the city zoo founded in 1927. Over 500 species of animals live here on an area of 55 hectares, including black jaguars, Amur tigers, African elephants, white bears, giraffes, gorillas, penguins, hippos and others. Near the zoo is the Rostov Botanical Garden, the largest in the south of Russia. It contains the most unique collection of plants, a plant museum, a rose garden, a medicinal garden, a dendrological park, a greenhouse of tropical and subtropical plants, an exhibition of orchids and succulents.
The western part of the center is occupied by the Gorky Park of Culture and Rest. On its territory, in addition to the traditional entertainment, there are several city museums, including the Rostov Regional Museum of Local Lore, one of the oldest museums in the south of Russia, founded in 1865.
In the northern part of the center, on Teplykh Square, you can see the «legendary» building of the Rostselmash plant (Rostov agricultural engineering plant), the largest enterprise in Rostov-on-Don. Thousands of people worked here during the Great Patriotic War, and the plant provided the front with military products. In the 1960s, a monument was erected on Teplyi Square — the famous «Elevator», which is a symbol of agriculture and the Rostov region.