The principal shopping streets, King Street and Princess Street, contain buildings of historical and architectural interest.
Verdant Victoria Square is the planned heart, and the quadrant to its north east is the principal shopping district, surrounding pedestrianised Rundle Mall.
The two explosions set off by the Stockholm bomber occurred on side streets crossing the pedestrian mall called Drottninggatan, the city's principal shopping street, and suggested that a catastrophic outcome had been narrowly averted.
The principal shopping districts, state and municipal government offices, and leading residential areas are on the upper level, extending northward for several miles and eastward to the Atlantic shore.
As we headed across the main square of the perfect fantasy small American town that makes up the principal shopping area, Harriet said: 'Do you think the music will drive us mad?' I had my doubts but was determined to approach the Disney experience with an unjaded mind.
It is here that the Financial District is centered, with Union Square, the principal shopping and hotel district, nearby.
Paul Sullivan cites the souks as the principal shopping attraction in the city: "A honeycomb of intricately connected alleyways, this fundamental section of the old city is a micro-medina in itself, comprising a dizzying number of stalls and shops that range from itsy kiosks no bigger than an elf's wardrobe to scruffy store-fronts that morph into glittering Aladdin's Caves once you're inside".
The principal street, from the railway station to the steelworks, is 5.5 miles (9 km) long, with the main shops, hotels, and administrative buildings.
Princes Street became the main shopping street and the principal thoroughfare of the city, and few original buildings remain behind the shop fronts.
Gregg Pasquarelli, a principal in SHoP Architects, said the opposite was true.
