[11] In addition to the zoo, Artis also contains an aquarium, a planetarium, an arboretum, Micropia, and the Groote Museum.

A part of the art collection is on display in the aquarium building of the zoo.

Artis contains 27 historically significant (listed) buildings, bridges, and ponds, most of which are still used as animal enclosures.

[14] The core of the current zoo property, then the "Middenhof" estate, was purchased by the board of the zoological society "Natura Artis Magistra" late in 1838 in the Plantage, which was then a thinly populated area on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

More often than not, only the middle gate was open, so that people who walked through it, seeing that 'Artis' was written above it, believed that the zoo was just called Artis.