Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, is located on the upper edge of the Sonoran Desert. It is situated in the south-central portion of the state at the intesection of Interstatets 17 and 10.
Phoenix is an agricultural, industrial and service center.
It is surrounded by 22 other cities in the Valley of the Sun where western style homes and sprawling shopping malls abound. They built 135 miles of waterways which fed their crops and villages from the water of the Salt River. It is still a mystery why these ancient people vanished, but the accepted theory is their settlement was destroyed by a long drought. It wasn't until the 1800s that modern history began to rebuild from these prehistoric ashes. In 1867, a farmer by the name of Jack Swilling of Wickenburg discovered the conditions of Phoenix to be quite suitable for farming.