Grand Canyon

A steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona. It is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and more than a mile deep.

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon in Arizona, carved by the Colorado River. It stretches 277 miles (446 km), reaches 18 miles (29 km) across at its widest and is more than a mile (1,857 m) deep. The canyon and its rim lie within Grand Canyon National Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, the Hualapai and Havasupai Indian Reservations and the Navajo Nation.

As the Colorado River and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau rose, nearly two billion years of Earth’s geological history were exposed. Native Americans have lived in the area for thousands of years, and the Pueblo people regarded the canyon as a holy site. The first European known to have seen it was García López de Cárdenas of Spain, who arrived in 1540.