| Tennessee is the seventeenth most populated state in the United States. The population was 6,214,888 according to an estimate in 2008. It is located in the southern part of the country with North Carolina to the east, Kentucky and Virginia to the north, Arkansas and Missouri to the west, and Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi to the south. It is one of the two states of the US that share borderlines with as many as eight other states. The state ranks 36th by size with a total area of 42,169 square miles. The highest point in Tennessee is Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet, which lies on its eastern border. Clingmans Dome is also the highest point on the Appalachian Trail. The lowest point of the state lies in the Mississippi river. Geographically, the state is divided into East Tennessee, West Tennessee and Middle Tennessee. There are six principal regions in the state, namely the Blue Ridge, the Cumberland Plateau, the Nashville Basin, the Highland Rim, the Appalachian Ridge and the Gulf Coastal Plain. Tennessee was the sixteenth state to ratify the US Constitution. Nashville is the capital and Memphis is the largest city. |
