The state of Texas is one of the states of the United States of America and is situated in the South Central United States. On of the names with which the state is known by is the Lone Star State. The capital of Texas is the city of Austin. With respect to the level of population, as well as the area covered, the state ranks second among all the other states of the United States. The area covered by Texas is more than two hundred and sixty eight thousand square miles, and the state is home to more than twenty four million people, and this is growing. The largest city of the state of Texas is Houston, and the largest metropolitan statistical area is the Dallas / Fort Worth area.

The landscape of Texas is very diverse and varying. From the Deep South to the desert which lies in the South West, the land is dotted with woods of pine, cross timber and oak forests, as well as prairies, rolling plains, and finally with a desert which is located in the Big Bend. Because of the fact that the prairie is so open and expansive, it seems that there is a lot of space. This has given birth to the phrase “everything is bigger in Texas”. The image of the cowboy is also famously associated with the state of Texas, since the state has been a major hub of the American cattle industry throughout the history of the country.

Texas has very close and strong cultural and historical ties with the American South. The reason for these ties is fact that Texas was a member of the Confederacy, as well as having certain patterns of settlement. But the state can also be called a South Western state, since it once belonged to both Mexico and Spain.