Calgary has the most striking setting of all of Canada's prairie cities. It lies at the very edge of the high plains, where they rise into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, on a site deeply carved by the Bow and Elbow rivers. The city proper covers a land area of 717 sq km (277 sq mi), and the entire metropolitan area has a land area of 5083 sq km (1963 sq mi).
The river valleys are natural corridors for roads and railways and have had a strong influence on Calgary's layout. In the eastern sector of the city the valleys are largely used for industry, but elsewhere they provide attractive sites for homes, parks, and recreation facilities. These include Heritage Park, a reconstructed pioneer village; Canada Olympic Park, which was built for the Winter Olympics in 1988; and the Calgary Zoo, with its botanical garden and its Prehistoric Park, which displays life-size models of the dinosaurs that once lived in Alberta.
