Albuquerque is a vibrant, sprawling desert metropolis near the center of New Mexico.Although it is the largest city in the state, Albuquerque is often overshadowed as a tourist destination by Santa Fe, 60 miles to the north. But Albuquerque has a number of great attractions in its own right, with pleasant scenery, colorful history, and a spectacular hot-air balloon fiesta in the fall.Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as a small Spanish settlement on the banks of the Rio Grande and was named for the Duke of Alburquerque (hence Albuquerque 's nickname, "The Duke City"). In the 1880s the railroad came to town, and almost overnight a new city grew up around the train tracks a couple of miles away from the original settlement. This "New Town" became the hub of commerce for the state, and the city grew exponentially (eventually the "New Town", which today is Downtown, and the original "Old Town" settlement were joined to become part of the same city). In the 1920s the federal government officially recognized a series of highways that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles as Route 66, and Albuquerque was one of the towns "The Mother Road" passed through. Today, Albuquerque is still a hub of activity and transportation. While Santa Fe is the state capital and the principal tourist destination of New Mexico, Albuquerque is New Mexico 's only truly urban area with a metropolitan population of nearly 900,000. This is where you 'll find the headquarters of the state 's businesses, the University of New Mexico, many of New Mexico 's largest employers, and the Albuquerque International Sunport, the only major airport in the state. http://wikitravel.org/en/Albuquerque