Melbourne is the capital city of the state of Victoria, in southeastern Australia.

Melbourne is Australia’s second most populous city, after Sydney, and is a major economic, cultural, and administrative center.

The Melbourne metropolitan area, which is what most Australians mean when they refer to the city of Melbourne, covers an area of more than 6000 sq km (more than 2300 sq mi).

The city proper, a small section in the center of the metropolis, covers only a few square kilometers. The city center occupies a compact area on the northern bank of the Yarra and is laid out in a grid between La Trobe and Flinders streets to the north and south, respectively, and Spencer and Spring streets to the west and east, respectively.

High-rise buildings have replaced Melbourne’s formerly low-rise skyline, though the central area remains famous for its 19th-century architecture, including Gothic-style churches, neoclassical public buildings, and terraced houses decorated with cast iron.

The terrain rises steeply on the east side of the city center, where Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Parliament House, the Treasury, and the Fitzroy Gardens are found.

On the southern bank of the Yarra, the Victorian Arts Centre adds the Victorian Arts Centre to the charm of the city’s southern entrance along Saint Kilda Road. The complex is home to the National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne Concert Hall, and the Theatres Building.

Greater Melbourne sprawls east and west around the shores of Port Phillip Bay and extends inland to the Dandenong Ranges in a vast network of suburbs.

The suburbs include the inner-city, formerly working-class areas of Richmond, Collingwood, and Fitzroy; distant bayside areas such as Mordialloc, Frankston, and Mornington; and the once semirural retreats in the foothills of the Dandenongs like Fern Tree Gully, Nunawading, and Belgrave. The satellite city Geelong lies 65 km (40 mi) southwest of Melbourne.

Melbourne’s parks include the Domain, the Victoria and Alexandra Gardens, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, among the finest of their kind in the world.

Established in 1845, the Royal Botanic Gardens are stocked with more than 10,000 species of plants, trees, and shrubs.

In 2002, construction of Eureka Tower, a 91-story skyscraper, began in Melbourne’s docklands. The tower is the tallest residential building in the world, measuring 297 m (975 ft) in height.

Rialto Towers, Australia’s tallest building until it was surpassed by the construction of Eureka Tower in 2004, rises 63 stories to a height of 251 m (824 ft) in Melbourne’s Central Business District.

Melbourne is also distinguished from other Australian cities in its use of trams (streetcars) for public transportation. Quaint, older trams, whose historical importance has been recognized by the National Trust, operate within a fleet of brightly painted, quieter, and modernized trams.