When residing in the Kyoto Imperial Palace the emperor would sit facing south, thus the eastern direction would be to his left.

In central Kyoto, the Kamo River flows on the western border of this ward.

The train station Demachiyanagi is the terminal for both the Keihan railway with trains running south to Osaka, and the Eizan railway running north to Yase [ja] and Kurama.

See also: Rurikō-in Buddhist temple In the northern parts are Kuramadera, Kifunejinja, Sanzen-in, the ruins of a house where Iwakura Tomomi was imprisoned, the Shugakuin Imperial Villa and Manshuin Temple, and the Kyoto International Conference Hall where the Kyoto Protocol was adopted.

Sakyō-ku also contains the Kyoto Botanical Garden and several of the mountains lit up during the yearly Gozan no Okuribi festival, including the main Daimonji-yama.