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Combine Fasnacht with the amazing fire spectacle of Chienbäse parade in nearby town of Liestal, capital of the neighboring canton Basel-Landschaft (15 minutes by train from the SBB Station), which starts at 19:15 on the Sunday evening preceding Morgestraich. Locals clad in (kind of) fireproof garb parade through the narrow and spectator-lined streets of the town, carrying large burning wooden brooms (bäse) above their heads. Other groups are drawing iron carts with huge bonfires - which they even rush through some of the old town gates, as the flames lick the structures above. There are a number of inconclusive interpretations of this pagan-seeming custom but, again, you don't necessarily need to understand any of them to appreciate the eerie and even mildly threatening beauty of the parade.
Basel Minster
Now a Reformed Protestant cathedral, it was built from 1019, badly damaged in an earthquake of 1356, and completed in 1500 in Romanesque & Gothic style. The Galluspforte (Gallus portal) on the western façade is a magnificent sculptural work. Figures carved on the main (south) façade include St. George slaying the Dragon. Inside, there's a sandstone lectern, and a crypt with tombs of early bishops of Basel; also buried here is Jacob Bernoulli, who discovered the mathematical constant e. You can climb either or both towers: St. Martin's is 62 m and St. George's is 65 m.
Protestant church completed in 1864 in neo-Gothic Revival style. Note the stone pulpit with wooden canopy.
Fine Arts Museum
Huge permanent collection of 19th and 20th century works, including a whole room of Picasso, and medieval and renaissance paintings from Holbein, Grien and others. Housed in two buildings: Hauptbau & Neubau.
On the same ticket but in the separate Gegenwart building at St. Alban-Rheinweg 60 (10-minute walk from the main facility) is the Museum of Contemporary Art, open Tu-Su 11:00-18:00.
No permanent collection, this is Basel's main non-commercial art space for changing contemporary art shows. Throughout the year, the Kunsthalle shows cutting edge international artists in meticulously curated shows.
Museum of Cultures
Ethnographic museum featuring exhibits from South America, Africa, East Asia and Oceania. The exhibits from the South Seas, Ancient America, Tibet and Bali are world-famous, as are its textiles.
Museum of Ancient Art and Ludwig Collection
Huge collection of antiquities: some Egyptian and Mesopotamian art, but mostly Greek art.