Phoenix, AZ Guides, Vacations, Tourism

The state capital and largest city in Arizona, Phoenix holds minimal appeal for tourists. When it began life in the 1860s, the sweltering little farming town stood in the heart of the large Salt River Valley, with a ready-made irrigation system left by ancient Indians (the name Phoenix honors the fact that the city rose from the ashes of a long-vanished Hohokam community). Within a century, however, Phoenix had turned into what writer Edward Abbey called "the blob that is eating Arizona," acquiring the money and political clout to defy the self-evident absurdity of building a huge city in a virtually … more »