Immigrate to the United States to learn about life in the United States: The Grand Canyon is located on the Colorado Plateau in the state of Arizona, USA, with the Colorado River flowing through it. It is one of the greatest geological masterpieces on Earth. Because the Colorado River flows through it, it is also known as the Colorado Grand Canyon, and it is one of the natural heritage sites selected by UNESCO for protection.
The section belonging to Grand Canyon National Park is the deepest and most spectacular part of the Grand Canyon, approximately 170 kilometers long and covering an area of 2,724 square kilometers. If the Native American reservation areas are included, the total length of the Grand Canyon reaches 446 kilometers, and the total area reaches 4,930 square kilometers. The Grand Canyon is vast and boundless; even from places with a good view, one can only see a small portion. It is said that no one has ever seen its full scope to this day.
The Grand Canyon is 446 kilometers long in total, with its deepest point being approximately 1.6 kilometers—about as high as a 500-story building—and its widest point being 13 kilometers. According to relevant data, the uppermost rock layer of the Grand Canyon, which is the youngest layer, is limestone formed 270 million years ago. The oldest rocks at the very bottom can be traced back 1.84 billion years, while the age of the Earth itself is only 4.55 billion years.
Due to the differences in the structure and hardness of the river valley strata, the long canyon is filled with wonders of nature and diverse forms. In particular, the cross-sections of the valley walls have clear joints, layered and stacked, rising and falling along the mountains and extending along the valley, earning it the reputation of a "living textbook of geological history." Even for ordinary tourists like us who have no knowledge of geology, we can still feel the spectacle of the Earth's geological changes from those colorful and distinct layers of the valley wall rock sections.
The ruins of mud-walled huts in the Grand Canyon indicate that Native Americans were the earliest masters to develop this area in the 13th century. However, the fame of the Grand Canyon's natural wonders should be attributed to the promotion by the one-armed American artillery major, John Wesley Powell. In 1869, he led an expedition team, traveling by small boat from the unexplored upper reaches of the Colorado River to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. He wrote about his thrilling experiences along the way, which became widely circulated, thereby attracting the attention of the American government and public, leading to the establishment of Grand Canyon National Park in 1919. It is said that in the 16th century, a man named Colorado traveled from afar to this place in search of the legendary Seven Cities of Gold and discovered the Grand Canyon, which is how the name Colorado Grand Canyon originated.