Ranked by fame

The 13 Most Iconic Spots in Charleston, Ranked (2026)

We ranked Charleston's landmarks by how many people look each one up on Wikipedia over a year — a refreshingly honest measure of what's genuinely iconic versus merely well-marketed. Most-looked-up first, each with somewhere to actually put it in your trip.

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  1. French Quarter

    ◎ 153k lookups a year

    • French Quarter, Charleston
    Warren LeMay from Covington, KY, United States · CC0

  2. Beaufort, SC

    ◎ 127k lookups a year

    • Beaufort, SC, Charleston
    L. Prang & Co. · Public domain

  3. Sullivan's Island

    ◎ 55k lookups a year

    • Sullivan's Island, Charleston
    Warren LeMay from Covington, KY, United States · CC0

  4. Cypress Gardens

    ◎ 49k lookups a year

    • Cypress Gardens, Charleston
    Tichnor Brothers, Inc. · Public domain

  5. The Battery

    ◎ 37k lookups a year

    • The Battery + White Point Garden, Charleston
    Curt Teich & Co., Chicago (publisher) · Public domain

  6. Rainbow Row

    ◎ 28k lookups a year

    • Rainbow Row, Charleston
    Thomson200 · CC0

  7. Folly Beach

    ◎ 28k lookups a year

    • Folly Beach, Charleston
    Tichnor Brothers, Boston (publisher) · Public domain

  8. Charleston City Market

    ◎ 23k lookups a year

    • Charleston City Market, Charleston
    Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0

  9. Middleton Place Plantation

    ◎ 21k lookups a year

    • Middleton Place Plantation, Charleston
    Published for Lanneau's Art Store, Charleston by The Albertype Co. · Public domain

  10. Hampton Park

    ◎ 10k lookups a year

    • Hampton Park, Charleston
    Published for F. J. Martschink Co. by Curt Teich & Co. · Public domain

  11. Fort Sumter National Monument

    ◎ 10k lookups a year

    • Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston
    National Park Service Digital Image Archives · Public domain

  12. King Street

    • King Street, Charleston
    Souvenir Post Card Co. · Public domain

  13. Upper King Street

    • Upper King Street, Charleston
    Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Method: each spot's total English-Wikipedia pageviews, June 2025–May 2026, via the Wikimedia REST API. A proxy, cheerfully imperfect, but it rarely lies about what's actually iconic.