Arizona's capital city, Phoenix, has risen from the mythical ashes of an ancient agricultural Indian village to become a sprawling modern metropolis, the sixth largest city in the USA. Its rapid urban growth has filled what is known as the 'Valley of the Sun', encompassing the neighboring towns of Scottsdale, Mesa and Tempe as suburbs and is America's fastest-growing urban center, claiming to have more five-star hotels than any other city in the USA. With luxurious resorts and spas, glitzy shopping plazas, upmarket restaurants and superb golf courses, together with over 300 days of sunshine a year,
the area has become a popular winter getaway for the rest of the country. Phoenix's greatest attraction however is its location, surrounded by a vast cactus-studded desert and the magnificent scenery of the Red Rock Country around nearby Sedona, whose landscape of canyons, pinnacles and red cliffs have been the setting for numerous 'Wild West' films and novels. The Apache Trail is a winding scenic drive that passes through some of the beautiful rugged terrain of central Arizona, passing ghost towns, ancient ruins and the Superstitious Mountains.
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