Is a 'Wide Angle Lens' what I want?

I do not know much at all about cameras but I’m in the market. I’d really like as wide a picture as possible. The pictures I’d be taking would be in odd locations such as abandoned hotels and hospitals, under bridges, on top of sky scrapers, and the like. I need as much in the photograph as possible. If a ‘wide angle lens’ isn’t what I want, can you tell me what is?