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San Diego

City in California, United StatesSan Diego lies on the Pacific coast in the far south of California, right next to the border with Mexico. Its downtown sits on San Diego Bay.

What it's known for

San Diego has a long link with the United States Navy, and by 1930 it already hosted Naval Base San Diego. The city is also known for its mild Mediterranean climate, long beaches and large parks, and it is a centre for biotechnology and electronics.

Fun facts

  1. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the bay for Spain in 1542 and named it San Miguel; in 1602 Sebastián Vizcaíno named the area after Saint Didacus, known in Spanish as San Diego de Alcalá.
  2. San Diego is called the Birthplace of California because it was the first place there visited and settled by Europeans, and its mission, founded in 1769, is the oldest Spanish mission in California.
  3. The San Diego Zoo grew out of the exotic animals shown at the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 in Balboa Park.

Finding it on the globe

Go to the bottom-left corner of the mainland United States, where the California coast meets Mexico. San Diego sits just north of the border, about 180 km southeast of Los Angeles.

Easy to mix up

San Diego is not California's capital: that is Sacramento, far to the north. Tijuana in Mexico lies right across the border, so aim just north of the line.

Sources: Wikipedia: San Diego, Wikipedia: Tijuana, Wikipedia: Sacramento, California