With its broad, tree-lined avenues, Spanish-style architecture, and surrounding mountains, Phoenix bears much resemblance to Los Angeles. Like its California counterpart, Phoenix is a metropolis with not one but many centres, all at considerable distances from one another. From its historic heart to the west of Sky Harbor International Airport, the greater metropolitan area—of which Phoenix is only a small part—has grown to take in a vast expanse of land that stretches nearly from the Gila River far to the south to the tall plateaus and volcanic mountains of the north and east and out into the broad desert valley to the west. Growth is a constant in Phoenix life as thousands of new residents and millions of visitors find their way there each year.

The broad valley in which the city lies extends west to the Colorado River and south to the mountain chains north of Tucson, although the geographic borders of Phoenix end far short of those natural barriers. The Phoenix metropolitan area—the Valley of the Sun—stands at an elevation of 1,100 feet (335 metres) above sea level. The northern and eastern ends of this valley rise into the surrounding volcanic peaks; the remainder is level terrain, dotted with small volcanic mountains of granite and schist. Camelback Mountain, Squaw Peak, and South Mountain are the most prominent of these urban peaks, reaching elevations of about 2,600 to 2,700 feet (790 to 820 metres).

The desert soil is alkaline, and the water in the river and in local wells is saline and contains other minerals. Many irrigated areas in the Phoenix area are encrusted with dried mineral deposits, which accumulate and reduce the productivity of the soil. Water is strangely abundant, given the fact that the city lies in one of the most arid regions on the continent; the valley overlies a subterranean sedimentary bowl that can hold vast quantities of groundwater. However, these stores have been substantially depleted, and Phoenix increasingly has come to depend on water from the Colorado River via the Central Arizona Project (CAP), an artificial waterway 336 miles (541 km) long extending from Lake Havasu on the California border to Tucson. In addition, water from subterranean stores is piped into the valley from outlying areas. In the past, virtually all of the region's water was used for agricultural purposes, although an increasing share is now apportioned for municipal use.

Phoenix has a dry, warm climate that in the winter months attracts tens of thousands of visitors. The average daily high temperature in the winter approaches 70 °F (21 °C), but summer highs typically rise to more than 100 °F (38 °C). It is almost always sunny throughout the year.

Precipitation averages less than 8 inches (200 mm) annually, divided almost evenly between the winter and summer months. In summertime, the so-called monsoon season, much of this precipitation returns to the atmosphere almost immediately through evaporation or transpiration.

None of the mountains ringing Phoenix to the north and east reaches an elevation high enough to attract much moisture. The city depends almost wholly on groundwater that flows from the Salt and Gila rivers, as well as supplemental water brought in by aqueducts via the CAP.

Until relatively recently, some three-fifths of the land within the Phoenix city limits was undeveloped. In the mid-1970s a plan was proposed to develop these vacant lands through a program of “infill” construction, taking advantage of the infrastructure that was already in place. Instead, however, the city pursued a policy of annexing surrounding communities, expanding outward to accommodate its growing population.

Phoenix has grown to absorb many satellite communities, and it is surrounded by other independent municipalities that have boomed on their own. These include Scottsdale, an affluent area known for its shopping and art districts, to the northeast; Fountain Hills, an exclusive community in the hills east of Scottsdale; Tempe, a middle-class suburb that is home to Arizona State University, to the east and Mesa, the “Mormon capital of Arizona,” farther east; Chandler, where a high-technology centre has emerged, to the southeast; the once-small agricultural communities of Gilbert and Queen Creek east of Chandler; Glendale, Goodyear, and Avondale to the west; and Sun City, one of the first retirement communities in the country, to the northwest.

The population of Phoenix is predominantly white (i.e., generally of European ancestry); the site was settled largely by Midwesterners in several waves of migration. More than two-fifths of the people identify themselves as Hispanic. A large proportion of the city's Hispanic population is from Mexico, and Hispanics constitute a significant segment of the unskilled labour force. Other minorities in the city are Asians, African Americans, and Pacific Islanders.

The Hohokam (Hohokam culture) were the earliest permanent Native American (Southwest Indian) inhabitants of the Phoenix area. After them came the Akimel O'odham ( Pima), Maricopa, Yavapai, and Yaqui groups. The U.S. government sent many of these peoples to nearby reservations in the 19th century. Although only a fraction of the city's population is Native American, Phoenix still has one of the largest urban concentrations of Native Americans in the country. Several reservations are located to the south and northeast of the metropolitan area.

African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans live primarily in the southern portion of the city, below the downtown district. Open ethnic conflict is rare, except as it is played out by rival gangs of mostly young inner-city residents.

Despite the large number of retirement communities in the area, the overwhelming majority of the population is under the age of 45. The majority of the people also tend to be relatively new to the region, many residents having lived in Phoenix for less than a decade.

Phoenix's economy was once dominated by ranching and farming, but it shifted in the mid-20th century to one based on services, technology, and, more notably, tourism. Maricopa county was one of the top urban agricultural producers in the country in 1980, but farming has since steadily lost ground to urban growth; now only a small portion of the labour force is engaged in food production.

About three-fourths of the state's manufacturing jobs are located in the Phoenix area. Light industry is predominant, especially the manufacture of electronics, transportation equipment, aerospace technology, foodstuffs, and cosmetics. The principal crops are cotton, durum wheat, fruits, and vegetables. Only a small proportion of the workforce in the private sector belongs to labour unions, which, along with tax incentives, has made Phoenix attractive to relocating corporations, many of them engaged in the manufacture of semiconductors and other electronic components. The region has thus emerged as a centre of high-technology production. A well-developed electronics infrastructure also has made Phoenix a capital of the telecommunications industry. More than half the labour force works in banking, finance, and other service activities. For the most part, however, the city's economy still depends on tourism, especially in the winter months.

Phoenix is well served by roads, railways, and airlines. Automobiles are the most popular method of transportation, which has led to severe air pollution. All streets within the city limits were paved by 1920, far ahead of many metropolitan areas in the country. Phoenix is served by a system of freeways, most of which were built in the last two decades of the 20th century to alleviate congestion. Construction of a light-rail system began in 2006. A branch line of the Union Pacific Railroad (Union Pacific Railroad Company) connects the city to the main line between Los Angeles and El Paso. Regular airline connections to Phoenix began in the late 1920s. Several airports serve the metropolitan area; the most important of these is Sky Harbor International, southeast of downtown.

Phoenix has operated on a council-manager system since 1914; it was one of the first cities in the country to adopt this now-common method of governance. Until the late 1940s, powers were evenly divided between the two entities, with council members able to reward political patronage. Vulnerable to corruption, this system ended when the Charter Government Committee—led by department store executive and later Republican Party presidential nominee Barry M. Goldwater (Goldwater, Barry), who became a member of the city council in 1949—implemented several key organizational reforms.

By the late 1990s, Phoenix had developed a business-oriented city government headed by a city manager appointed by the city council. The council, made up of eight elected members, sets city policy, enacts ordinances, and appropriates funds for long-term city projects. The mayor, elected at large, serves as the head of the council for a four-year term. Individual members are elected by district; they initially serve two-year terms and can be reelected to serve subsequent four-year terms.

Phoenix, in concert with the Maricopa Association of Governments and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, provides a range of services for its citizens. The city has an extensive network of public parks, notably Encanto and Papago parks and the Phoenix Mountains Preserve, a 6,000-acre (2,400-hectare) natural park in a desert-foothills setting. The 17,000-acre (6,900-hectare) South Mountain Park, one of the largest city parks in the country, lies on the south side of the city.

The system of health care in the Phoenix area has experienced severe setbacks, especially since the 1980s. Managed-care corporations have assumed control of most medical facilities and imposed cutbacks on services. Residents may receive care at the area's public hospital, the Maricopa County Medical Center. The Arizona State Hospital provides inpatient mental health care. The Mayo (Mayo family) Clinic in Scottsdale (opened 1987) includes medical research facilities.

Until the mid-1980s the educational system was characterized by inadequate funding, overcrowding, and poorly trained staff. In later years additional funding, stricter requirements, and the development of specialized magnet schools yielded some positive results, with students scoring well above national averages on several standardized tests.

Several public and private institutions of higher learning are located in and around Phoenix. Arizona State University (1885), a state land-grant institution, has three campuses in the Phoenix-Tempe area. Other institutions include the University of Phoenix (1976), Grand Canyon University (1949), Southwestern College (1960), Western International University (1978), and Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management (1946), in Glendale. The Maricopa Community College District is one of the largest community college systems in the country.

In the late 1940s several organizations, including the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and the Phoenix Art Museum, introduced a notable program of visiting artists and touring exhibits. Today the area is home to several fine art facilities, with the flagship Phoenix Art Museum holding a collection of more than 13,000 pieces, including a major collection of Southwestern art. The Heard Museum houses more than 75,000 Southwestern Native American works of art. The Arizona Science Center, a complex including exhibit halls, a planetarium, and a big-screen cinema, opened in 1997. The Pueblo Grande archaeological museum studies and preserves the ruins of the area's most prominent settlement of the Hohokam people.

In Papago Park are the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden, which has a collection of some 20,000 desert plants, and the 125-acre (51-hectare) Phoenix Zoo, which opened in 1962. Founded by appliance magnate Robert E. Maytag, the zoo is the largest privately owned nonprofit zoo in the country, although it receives some funding and support from the city. It participates in scientific research on the ecology of the Sonoran Desert, breeding programs for endangered and threatened species, and other ventures and has a highly regarded program of education and public outreach.

Since the late 1980s, civic leaders have approved several costly improvements to the area's downtown arts and museum district, which includes the city's convention centre, one of the largest municipally operated facilities of its kind in the country. Originally constructed in the early 1970s, it has undergone subsequent renovation and adjoins a complex of museums, performing arts venues, and sports facilities, including a baseball stadium and a basketball arena.

Sports have a central role in the cultural life of Phoenix. baseball is particularly popular. The local professional team is the Arizona Diamondbacks, and many other Major League Baseball teams hold their spring training camps (known as the Cactus League) in areas surrounding the city; several others train in the Tucson area. The area's other professional sports teams include the Cardinals (gridiron football), the Suns (men's basketball), the Mercury (women's basketball), and the Coyotes (ice hockey). There are also tracks for automobile, horse, and dog racing. Tennis and golf are widely played, and running, walking, and biking along the banks of the CAP aqueducts are popular recreational activities.

The metropolitan area's chief daily newspaper is the Arizona Republic. The Phoenix New Times is a weekly covering arts, culture, and politics. The Business Journal Phoenix, a weekly, provides economic and financial news.

Nearby Scottsdale is the site of Taliesin West (Taliesin and Taliesin West), the Arizona home and studio of architect Frank Lloyd Wright (Wright, Frank Lloyd) and the winter campus for the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Scottsdale is also the site of the Cosanti Foundation, founded by the Italian architect and builder Paolo Soleri (Soleri, Paolo). Located in Tempe is Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium, a theatre designed by Wright that has a 2,900-pipe organ. Tonto National Monument is about 60 miles (95 km) east and Casa Grande National Monument (Casa Grande Ruins National Monument) some 50 miles (80 km) south of Phoenix.

Spanish explorers arrived in what is now Arizona in the 16th century. A chain of missions and small forts extending northward from Mexico along the Santa Cruz River valley was established by 1700. In that period the Spanish made contact with the Akimel O'odham and Maricopa Indians, whose settlements along the Salt and Gila rivers were in close proximity to the northernmost mission.

In 1846, following the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, a detachment of Mormon volunteers entered the region and made its way to the villages of the Akimel O'odham. There they traded goods for fresh produce and grains. After the war, some of the Mormons returned to the area, established small farms along the Gila and Salt rivers, and founded the towns of Mesa, Florence, and Safford.

The Mormons gave the name Pumpkinville to what is now Phoenix. In 1867 Jack Swilling, a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, began a grain-milling business near the site of the present Sky Harbor International Airport to provision the federal garrison at Camp McDowell. Two years before Swilling's arrival, a local farmer named John Y.T. Smith, the first person of European descent to settle in the Salt River valley, had planted grain in the area. The renaming of the town was left to an Englishman and early town civic leader, Darrell Duppa. He chose the name Phoenix, giving the explanation, “A new city will spring phoenix-like upon the ruins of a former civilization.”

Pioneers came to the valley in increasing numbers throughout the late 1860s, and on Oct. 20, 1870, Phoenix was officially established as a town. A county building and the area's first schoolhouse were completed in September 1872. A telegraph line, operated by the pioneer prospector and merchant Morris Goldwater, was established in 1874, and a national bank opened in 1878.

After Phoenix became a city in 1881, civic leaders began to lobby for the construction of a railroad. In July 1887 a secondary line of the Southern Pacific Railroad (now Union Pacific Railroad) connected Phoenix to the main line leading east to El Paso and west to Los Angeles, providing a large and accessible market for the valley. With increased prosperity, the city began to modernize. Having already opened one of the first electric-power generating plants in the West in 1886, the city installed a streetcar system that soon traversed much of the valley. Within a few years Phoenix also had a hospital, a public library, and other municipal facilities.

Those leaders also worked to bring the Arizona territorial capital to Phoenix. Since the establishment of the territory in 1864, the legislature had relocated from Prescott to Tucson, then back to Prescott again. After extensive lobbying on the part of the city's emerging business elite, the legislature moved to Phoenix in 1889. A local farmer donated a 10-acre (4-hectare) site for the territorial capitol, and the new building was dedicated on Feb. 25, 1901. When Arizona attained statehood on Feb. 14, 1912, the building became the state capitol.

In the first years of the 20th century the people of Phoenix recognized that the region's potential was limited by its unreliable water supply. They formed the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association to lobby for the creation of a large-scale project to control the flow of the river and harness its water for irrigation (irrigation and drainage). The National Reclamation Act of 1902 had made government funding available for such public works. In 1905 construction began on the Roosevelt Dam, the first such structure on the Salt River; it was finished in 1911, making it possible to irrigate the surrounding desert and thus use it as farmland. In following years three more dams were added on the Salt and two on the Verde River.

With a network of reservoirs in place, Phoenix grew as an important agricultural centre in the early 20th century, providing winter vegetables and grain for much of the West. During World War I many of the city's farms shifted to the production of Egyptian (pima) cotton, which was needed for use in clothing, tires, airplane fabrics, and munitions. Russian, Japanese, and Mexican migrant workers traveled to Phoenix to work in the cotton fields, and by the 1920s the city underwent a cotton boom. A decade later the Great Depression put an end to such prosperity. Facing that unexpected downturn in the agricultural economy, Phoenix's business community—led by Dwight Heard, John Orme, William Murphy, and other prominent citizens—worked to diversify the city's economy, especially by encouraging the development of tourism.

During World War II Arizona's deserts served as military bases. Many of the soldiers who passed through Arizona liked what they saw and returned at the end of the war. Several hundred German and Italian prisoners of war who had been interned in camps in and near Phoenix chose to remain rather than return to their homelands after 1945.

Another factor in Phoenix's growth was the arrival of another source of water. Arizona Senators Carl Hayden and Barry Goldwater lobbied for a massive public works project, and in 1968 the Colorado River Basin Project Act was passed. The act authorized the CAP, which involved constructing a series of dams along with a canal that would divert water from the Colorado River to be used by many communities, including Phoenix and Tucson.

The military presence in the Phoenix area also contributed to the city's rapid growth. Until the 1930s, Camp McDowell was the sole military outpost in the region; in the years preceding World War II, however, Phoenix's business elite, led by Goodyear Tire chairman Frank Littlefield, successfully lobbied for the relocation of several U.S. Army Air Corps detachments to the area. Two important air bases, Williams and Luke, were established, and the military brought in thousands of personnel, many of whom remained or returned after completion of their service. In the aftermath of the Cold War, the military presence was reduced somewhat, but the U.S. Air Force has continued to figure prominently in the local economy and be an important employer of civilians.

In the late 1960s and early '70s corruption was an impediment to convincing nonmilitary employers to move into the Phoenix area. Bruce Babbitt, who in the mid-1970s was the state attorney general, warned that not only the Phoenix area but the entire state had earned reputations beyond their borders as dens of vice and crime. Land fraud was common, as was the illegal use of undocumented workers—mostly from Mexico and Central America—in factories and farms at extremely low pay rates. In 1976 Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles was murdered while investigating the connections between organized crime and agriculture and banking within Arizona; public outcry brought on several criminal conspiracy trials and the imprisonment of such crime figures as Ned Warren, locally known as the “Godfather of land fraud.” The spectre of corruption emerged again in the late 1980s, when Phoenix financier and developer Charles Keating was convicted on the charge of having stolen more than $1 billion from a financial firm that he controlled. The institution's demise was one of the largest bank failures in the country's history.

With increased prosperity in the 1990s, many of the city's social ills, notably crime, lessened, and material conditions improved. In 1993 the CAP, construction of which began in the early 1970s, was officially completed. The city continued to grow through policies of annexation and promotion to bring businesses to the area. By the early 21st century Phoenix and the once-distinct cities that surround it had emerged as one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country in terms of both area and population.

in Greek mythology, son of Amyntor, king of Thessalian Hellas. To please his mother, he seduced his father's concubine. After a violent quarrel Amyntor cursed him with childlessness, and Phoenix escaped to Peleus (king of the Myrmidons in Thessaly), who made him responsible for the upbringing of his son Achilles. According to Book IX of Homer's Iliad, Phoenix accompanied the young Achilles to Troy and was one of the envoys who tried to reconcile him with Agamemnon, chief commander of the Greek forces, after Agamemnon and Achilles had quarreled.

In Euripides' lost tragedy Phoenix, Amyntor blinded his son. According to the mythographer Apollodorus of Athens, Phoenix's sight was later restored by Chiron, the Centaur.

Phoenix more closely resembled the Viking landers of the 1970s than the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004 and roamed their respective landing sites for years. Like the Viking landers, Phoenix was slowed in its descent to the Martian surface by thrusters rather than air bags, which were used by the twin rovers. Phoenix stayed at a single location in the Martian arctic and drilled for rock samples with a 2.35-metre (7.7-foot) robotic arm, the arm placing the samples for analysis in a small self-contained chemistry laboratory. Other instruments included a small weather station and a camera.

One of Phoenix's most important discoveries was the existence of water ice beneath the surface of Mars. Phoenix's robotic arm dug a trench that uncovered a white material that sublimed (sublimation) directly into the atmosphere and therefore was water ice. Minerals, such as calcium carbonate, that form in the presence of water were found. The soil at the landing site was found to be alkaline with a pH between 8 and 9. (Earlier missions to Mars had detected acidic soil.) Compounds containing the perchlorate ion (ClO₄⁻) were also discovered. Phoenix ceased transmitting to Earth on Nov. 2, 2008, as its solar panels received less and less light in the gathering Martian winter.