The city is located in northwest Georgia, in the hills south of the Chattahoochee River.
It is the largest city in the state and the third largest city in America (behind San Francisco and Seattle) - Atlanta has a population of just under half a million people, with more than 5.5 million living in the metropolitan area. About 60,000 of the city's residents speak Russian.
The population is diverse, with whites, African-Americans, Asians and Latinos of various religions. The city is very colorful and vibrant, and each person who comes to Atlanta sees something different.
The city was founded in 1837 as an important transportation hub - its emergence was due to the construction of the West Atlantic Railroad. The Cherokee and Creeks originally lived here, where Atlanta is today.
Atlanta suffered greatly during the Civil War - the battle for the city was one of its key stages (it is colorfully described in the famous novel "Gone with the Wind").
Almost completely burned in 1864 and then rebuilt, Atlanta became the business center of the southern states and the capital of Georgia within a few years after the end of the war.
The city survived the war and serious race riots after its conclusion, it was also one of the centers of civil strife in the 1960s, and in 1996 it became the capital of the Anniversary Summer Olympics.
