To get some orientation of Moscow it is best to think of the city as a series of circles one outside the other. The first circle consists of the walls of the Kremlin and the border of the area historically known as Kitai-Gorod. The next is the horseshoe Boulevard Ring which runs around the very centre of Moscow north of the River Moskva. After this is the ring road known as the Garden Ring Road which circles the whole of the centre. The next ring is formed by the Third Ring Road and after this is the Moscow Ring Road which is better known by its Russian initialism of MKAD.

For ease we have divided Moscow's sights into various sections.  The area inside the Third Ring Road is broken down approximately into the central districts of Moscow. Surrounding the centre and Kitai-Gorod, from the very north running clockwise, these are the Meschansky, Krasnoselsky, Basmanny, Tagansky, Zamoskvorechye, Yakimanka, Khamovniki, Arbat, Dorogomilovsky, Presnensky and Tverskoy.

The area outside the Third Ring Road is divided into the Outer North, Outer South, Outer East and Outer West.  The Moscow Metro also gets its own section being a tourist attraction in its own right!