Arizona map

Where Arizona is

Arizona is in the Southwest, between California and New Mexico, with Mexico along its whole southern edge. It measures about 390 miles north to south and 340 miles east to west. Utah is to the north, New Mexico to the east, the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south, and California and Nevada to the west across the Colorado River. The northeast corner meets Utah, Colorado and New Mexico at Four Corners, the only spot in the US where four states touch. Phoenix lies in the low Sonoran Desert of the south-central state; Flagstaff, 140 miles north, sits at 7,000 feet on the Colorado Plateau.

Major cities

Geography

• Humphreys Peak — 12,633 feet, the highest point, in the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff.
• Grand Canyon — the Colorado River's 277-mile gorge across the northwest, up to a mile deep. See the Grand Canyon map.
• Colorado Plateau — high tableland covering the northern third of the state, edged on the south by the Mogollon Rim. See the Colorado Plateau map.
• Colorado River — forms the entire western border and is dammed at Glen Canyon (Lake Powell) and Hoover Dam (Lake Mead). See the Colorado River map.
• Sonoran Desert — covers the south and west, including Phoenix and Tucson; saguaro cactus grows nowhere else in the US. See the Sonoran Desert map.
• Gila and Salt rivers — drain the centre and south westward to the Colorado at Yuma, near the lowest point of about 70 feet.
• Time — Arizona is on Mountain time but does not observe daylight saving, except on the Navajo Nation.

Borders

The northern border with Utah follows the 37th parallel and the eastern border with New Mexico runs along a meridian just west of 109°W; both were surveyed when Arizona Territory was split from New Mexico Territory in 1863. The western border is natural: the Colorado River from the Utah line south to the Mexican border, shared with Nevada in the north and California in the south. The Mexican border is two straight segments dating from the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the 1853 Gadsden Purchase, which added the land south of the Gila River, including Tucson.

Regions of Arizona

The Valley of the Sun (Phoenix and its suburbs), Southern Arizona (Tucson, the border country), Northern Arizona (Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, the Navajo and Hopi lands), the Mogollon Rim and White Mountains in the east-central highlands, and Western Arizona along the Colorado River (Lake Havasu City, Yuma).

Related maps

• Arizona county map — all 15 counties with seats.
• Blank Arizona map — outline for printing.
• Printable Arizona map.
• Phoenix — the largest state capital in the US.
• Neighbors: Utah, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Colorado.
• Region: West · Mountain · Southwest.
• Time zone: Mountain (no daylight saving).
• Geography: Grand Canyon, Four Corners, Colorado River, US deserts.