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Phoenix
Capital of Arizona and the desert Southwest's largest city
Phoenix sprawls across the flat Salt River Valley in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, the largest capital city in the United States by population and the anchor of a metropolitan area of nearly five million. The valley, ringed by low desert mountains, was farmed by the ancient Hohokam, whose canal networks the modern city echoed when settlers re-dug them in the 1860s — the rebuilt-from-ruins origin that gave Phoenix its name.
Water hauled from distant rivers and reservoirs turned the desert basin into one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, a low, wide grid of suburbs spreading toward the surrounding ranges. Summers are extreme — among the hottest of any major U.S. city — yet the dry warmth and Sun Belt economy keep drawing newcomers. The Salt and Gila rivers, mostly dry at the surface, trace the valley that made the city possible.