Phoenix Geography
Phoenix is located at 33°31'42" North, 112°4'35" West (33.528370°, -112.076300°)1 in the Phoenix Valley or "Valley of the Sun" in central Arizona. It lies at a mean elevation of 1,117 feet (340 m) in the heart of the Sonoran Desert.
The Salt River course runs westward through the city of Phoenix; the riverbed is normally dry except when excess runoff forces the release of water from the four dams upriver. The city of Tempe has built two inflatable dams in the Salt River bed to create a year-round recreational lake, called Tempe Town Lake. The dams are deflated to allow the river to flow unimpeded during releases.
The Phoenix area is surrounded by the McDowell Mountains to the northeast, the White Tank Mountains to the west, the Superstition Mountains far to the east, and the Sierra Estrella to the southwest. Within the city are the Phoenix Mountains and South Mountains. Current development (as of 2005) is pushing rapidly beyond the geographic boundaries to the north and west, south through Pinal County towards Tucson, and beginning to surround the large Salt River and Gila River reservations.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1,230.5 km˛ (475.1 mi˛). 1,229.9 km˛ (474.9 mi˛) of it is land and 0.6 km˛ (0.2 mi˛) of it is water. The total area is 0.05% water.
The Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) (officially known as the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale MSA), is the 14th largest in the United States, with a total population of 3,251,876. It includes the Arizona counties of Maricopa and Pinal. Major cities include Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, Glendale, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, and Peoria. Several smaller communities are also included, such as Goodyear, Fountain Hills, Litchfield Park, Anthem, Sun Lakes, Sun City, and Sun City West. The community of Ahwatukee is a part of the City of Phoenix itself, but is almost entirely separated from it by South Mountain.