Santa Fe is nestled in the foothills at the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains at an altitude of 7,000 feet. The city occupies 33.4 square miles in a valley above the Rio Grande among mountains that reach to over 12,000 feet.

In 1598, Santa Fe was the northernmost settlement along the Camino Real, the Royal Road from Mexico City. The city itself was founded as a city of New Spain in 1609 and its official name is "La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis" or "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi". This historic city was designed in the traditional Spanish style around a central plaza and at one time all lands west of the Mississippi were governed from the Palace of the Governors on the Santa Fe Plaza.

The oldest buildings are made of adobe - a mixture of clay, mud and straw, which is baked in the sun. Many of the structures also have vigas (large pine trees stripped of the branches and bark that support the roof), and latillas (the split aspen or cedar branches forming a cross hatch pattern over the vigas). Much of the modern architecture of Santa Fe is designed in the Pueblo revival style, which incorporates this historic adobe form.