More than 500,000 people live in Tucson, Arizona with more than 800,000 in the surrounding metropolitan area. Because the area was originally inhabited by Paleo-Indians as early as 7000 B.C.E., Tucson has the distinction of being the oldest continuously inhabited site in the United States.

In Tucson, Arizona four sets of mountains bound the region: the Santa Catalinas on the north, Santa Ritas on the south, Rincons to the east and the Tucson Mountains to the west. In the summer temperatures in Tucson, Arizona routinely soar above one hundred degrees in June, July and August and locals joke that the only other season the city experiences is "not summer."

The late summer months can be so stormy and rainy as to be dubbed "monsoon" season by locals. At all other times of the year in Tucson, Arizona, the humidity is low. Winters are mild with temperatures in the seventies.

The average age in Tucson, Arizona is thirty-two with the average citizen earning approximately thirty to thirty-two thousand dollars a year. Men earn approximately thirty thousand a year with women making only twenty-three to twenty-four thousand dollars annually. For every one hundred women in Tucson, Arizona there are 93.3 men.

One of the most popular annual events in the city is the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. Rather than being held in one central location, exhibits are scattered all over the city in meeting halls and hotels. Tucson, Arizona estimates that the average attendance at the show is thirty-five thousand with dealers, collectors, museum curators, and researchers traveling from all over the country and the world for the event.

In the early spring visitors once again fill area hotels. Tucson, Arizona plays host to the week-long rodeo known as the Fiesta de los Vaqueros. The whole city decks out in Western attire for this popular annual event and school children are given two days off to attend the rodeo and associated events.

Visitors to the city also enjoy the University of Arizona's Art Museum which includes the Edward J. Gallagher Memorial Collection with its Pollocks and Rothkos, the Samuel H. Kress Collection with European works ranging from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, and the C. Leonard Pfeiffer collection or American works (principally paintings.)

To the west in the Tucson Mountains visitors can enjoy the Arizona-Sonora Museum, which is actually a zoo devoted to the study, preservation, and conservation of plants and animals of the American Southwest. At the Pima Air and Space Museum visitors can examine more than two hundred and fifty aircraft ranging from modern to historical vehicles.

With its gorgeous location in the Sonoran desert and situated in the middle of four mountain ranges, Tucson is a picturesque and vibrant city with welcoming amenities and interesting local attractions and events. The only drawback is the extreme summer heat, but locals will tell you that's why there are air conditioners. (For many, the low humidity and dry area make Tucson an attractive location to live a healthier life and to recover from respiratory ailments.)