The city of Calgary is situated in the Canadian province of Alberta. The city itself has a population of almost 1.1 million, while the greater metro area is home to 1,214,839 people making it the largest city in all of Alberta.
The city of Calgary consumes approximately 825 square kilometres of land. Calgary is best known for its participation and hosting the Winter Olympic Games in 1988. This in turn made the city the very first Canadian city to host the Winter Olympic Games.
The city is situated in the south of the province where the Bow and Elbow River's come together. It sits amongst for beautiful prairies and foothills to the east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies.
Calgary's economy has primarily been composed of financial services, energy, transport and logistics, television, tourism, health and wellness, retail, technology, aerospace and manufacturing. The Calgary CBD is the second largest area in all of Canada where the top 800 companies have established their headquarters.
In 1902 oil was first discovered in the province of Alberta, but it wasn't until around 1947 when large reserves were discovered in nearby Leduc. Subsequently, Calgary was engulfed in the oil boom. Calgary's economy then sky rocketed in 1973 when oil prices went through the roof as a result of the Arab Oil Embargo. The city's population increased by an astonishing 617,000 between the years on 1971 and 2007.
It was during this period that the building industry also boomed. Numerous skyscrapers were erected, and the majority of the downtown area that had mostly single or double story buildings, were demolished and gave way to high rise buildings.
As with all good things, it eventually had to come to an end. In 1982 oil prices started to decline rapidly, and so did the economy of Calgary. The low oil prices certainly took their toll, and the city did not fully recover until the 1990's.
The city of Calgary has no less than six sister cities being Jaipur in India, Phoenix in the USA, Naucalpan in Mexico, Quebec City Canada, Daejeon Chungnam in South Korea and Daqing Heilongjiang in China.
Calgary will not disappoint on the attractions front. There are so many things to take in such as Fort Calgary, the Calgary Stampede, Telus Spark, Calaway Park, the Heritage Park Historical Village, Canada Olympic Park, Calgary Zoo, the Glenbow Museum, the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Fish Creek Privincial Park, The Military Museums, Prince's Island Park, Calgary Tower, Devonian Gardens, The CORE Shopping Centre, Scotiabank Saddledome, the Chinook Centre, the Aero Space Museum of Calgary, The Bow, the Chinese Cultural Centre, Edworthy Park, Baitun Nur, Battalion Park, Sikome Lake, the Mewata Armouries, the Dinosaur Provincial Park, the Creative Kids Museum, the Kenosee Superslides and the Knox United Church. Phew, now that's a massive list.