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Dallas, Texas is located in north central Texas. Dallas is the seat of Dallas County and also lies partly in Collin, Denton, and Kaufman counties. Dallas is the second largest city in Texas (after Houston) and the eighth largest city in the United States, it is the center of the largest consolidated metropolitan area in the state. Historically, Dallas has been the transportation and marketing center for the north Texas area. It has evolved into a major center of finance, commerce, trade, and manufacturing for the southwestern United States and Mexico. The terrain is mostly flat and drains into the Trinity River. The climate is continental, with hot summers and moderately cold winters. The city was probably named for George Mifflin Dallas, vice president of the United States (1845-1849), although the exact origin of the name is undetermined and historians have suggested his brother, Commodore Alexander J. Dallas of the United States Navy, and Joseph Dallas, who settled in the area in 1842, as possible namesakes for the city

The city of Dallas extends over a land area of 341.9 square miles. The Dallas metropolitan area is made up of the counties of Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Henderson, Hunt, Kaufman, and Rockwall. In addition to Dallas, cities with more than 100,000 in population in the area are Garland, Irving, Mesquite, and Plano. Dallas is also part of the Dallas/Fort Worth Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as the Metroplex. In addition to Dallas and Fort Worth, the Metroplex includes Arlington and more than 80 other towns and communities.

The city of Dallas has sprawled into nearby counties, growing primarily to the north and west. The downtown is known for its distinctive contemporary architecture. Near the commercial center of the city is the West End Historic District, a group of 19th-century warehouses converted into shops and restaurants. Also nearby is the Deep Ellum (Elm) area, which was a thriving center of businesses owned by black Americans from the time of the Civil War (1861-1865) until the 1930s. This neighborhood now contains clubs, restaurants, and galleries.

The city’s historic sites include Fair Park, the largest art deco art and architecture district in the world and a National Historic Landmark, located east of downtown; and Dealey Plaza, the site of the assassination in 1963 of President John F. Kennedy and a National Historic Landmark District, located downtown. Other sites are the John F. Kennedy Memorial, designed by American architect Philip C. Johnson; the former county courthouse, designed in the Romanesque architectural style; the present courthouse and downtown library, designed by Chinese American architect I. M. Pei; the Sixth Floor of the former Texas School Book Depository, from which Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot Kennedy; and Old City Park, the site of Dallas’s oldest public park and now a museum of the architectural and cultural history of the city and region.

Dallas service industries, including trade, make up the city’s most important economic sector, followed by manufacturing. Dallas is an important distribution, financial, and insurance center for the Southwest. It is the site of a district Federal Reserve bank and the headquarters of a number of federal regional offices and large insurance and oil companies. Among the area’s most important manufactures are technology-related products, including computers, biomedical products, and electronics. Dallas has the largest concentration of trade facilities in the South and Southwest. Its location in the north central part of the state and its dense network of railroads and highways enable it to serve as the shipping center for the agricultural and mineral products of the surrounding region, including cotton, cereals, livestock, fruit, petroleum, and natural gas.

Dallas prides itself on being the center of culture in northern Texas. Institutions of higher learning include Southern Methodist University; Paul Quinn College, a historically black private institution that moved from Waco in 1990; the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas; Baylor College of Dentistry; Baylor School of Nursing; Dallas Baptist University; Dallas Christian College; Dallas Theological Seminary; and several campuses of Dallas County Community College. Located in the surrounding metropolitan area are more than a dozen other universities and colleges, including the University of Texas at Dallas, in Richardson, the University of Dallas, in Irving, and the University of North Texas, in Denton.

Dallas is the home of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Opera. The symphony performs in the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, designed by I. M. Pei. The building is in the Dallas Arts District, also the location of the Dallas Museum of Art, which was designed by American architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. Among the numerous other museums in the city are the Dallas Museum of Natural History and the African American Museum, both in Fair Park.

Other cultural organizations in the city include the Dallas Jazz Orchestra, the Classical Guitar Society, the Dallas Shakespeare Festival, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, and the Dallas Black Dance Theater. The Dallas Theater Center contains two venues: The Kalita Humphreys Theater, which is housed in a building designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Arts District Theater. Other important theatrical venues include Theater Three, Teatro Dallas, and the Dallas Children’s Theater. The Starplex Amphitheatre is the site of concerts.

Dallas contains more than 400 parks that cover a total of about 50,000 acres. Notable parks include Marsalis Park, which contains the Dallas Zoo, and the parks surrounding White Rock Lake, Bachman Lake, and Lake Cliff. City-owned greenbelts parallel White Rock Creek, Turtle Creek, and the Trinity River. Fair Park contains a number of museums, the city aquarium, and the Cotton Bowl stadium (the site of the annual Cotton Bowl college football game), as well as the fairgrounds and exposition halls that are the site of the annual State Fair of Texas. The Dallas Cowboys professional football team plays at Texas Stadium in Irving; the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team and the Dallas Stars professional hockey team play at Reunion Arena; and the Texas Rangers major league baseball team plays at the nearby Ballpark in Arlington.