Memphis, Tennessee
| Memphis, Tennessee | |||
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| City | |||
| City of Memphis | |||
From top to bottom and left to right: Downtown Memphis skyline, Beale Street, Graceland, Memphis Pyramid, Beale Street Landing, and the Hernando de Soto Bridge
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| Nickname(s): The Bluff City, The River City, Blues City, The M, MEM, Birthplace of Rock and Roll, The BBQ Capital of the World | |||
 Location in Shelby County and state of Tennessee. |
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 Memphis, Tennessee
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| Coordinates: 35°07′03″N 89°58′16″W / 35.11750°N 89.97111°W | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| State | Tennessee | ||
| County | Shelby | ||
| Founded | May 22, 1819 | ||
| Incorporated | December 19, 1826 | ||
| Named for | Memphis, Egypt | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Jim Strickland | ||
| Area | |||
| • City | 324.0 sq mi (839.2 km2) | ||
| • Land | 315.1 sq mi (816.0 km2) | ||
| • Water | 9.0 sq mi (23.2 km2) | ||
| Elevation | 337 ft (103 m) | ||
| Population (2010) | |||
| • City | 646,889 | ||
| • Estimate (2013) | 653,450 | ||
| • Rank | US: 23rd | ||
| • Density | 2,000/sq mi (770/km2) | ||
| • Urban | 1,060,061 (US: 41st) | ||
| • Metro | 1,341,746 (US: 41st) | ||
| • Demonym | Memphian | ||
| Time zone | CST (UTC−6) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC−5) | ||
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Zip codes
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| Area code | 901 | ||
| FIPS code | 47-48000 | ||
| Interstates |
   
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| Interstate Spurs |
  
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| U.S. Routes |
      
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| Major State Routes |  |
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| Waterways | Mississippi River, Wolf River | ||
| Public transit | MATA | ||
| Website | City of Memphis | ||
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers.
Memphis had a population of 653,450 in 2013, making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee. It is the largest city on the Mississippi River, the third largest in the greater Southeastern United States, and the 23rd largest in the United States. The greater Memphis metropolitan area, including adjacent counties in Mississippi and Arkansas, had a 2014 population of 1,317,314. This makes Memphis the second-largest metropolitan area in Tennessee, surpassed by metropolitan Nashville.
Memphis is the youngest of Tennessee's major cities, founded in 1819 as a planned city by a group of wealthy Americans including judge John Overton and future president Andrew Jackson. A resident of Memphis is referred to as a Memphian, and the Memphis region is known, particularly to media outlets, as Memphis and the Mid-South.
Occupying a substantial bluff rising from the Mississippi River, the site of Memphis has been a natural location for human settlement by varying cultures over thousands of years. The area was known to be settled in the first millennium AD. by people of the Mississippian Culture, who had a network of communities throughout the Mississippi River Valley and its tributaries and built earthwork ceremonial and burial mounds. The historic Chickasaw Indian tribe, believed to be their descendants, later occupied the site. French explorers led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto would encounter the Chickasaw in that area, in the 16th century.
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