Tempe also known as Hayden's Ferry during the territorial times of Arizona, is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a population of 185,035. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale on the north, Chandler on the south, and Mesa on the east.

Tempe is an inner suburb, located between the core city of Phoenix and the rest of the East Valley. Due to this as well as being the home of the main campus of Arizona State University, Tempe has a fairly dense, urbanized development pattern in the northern part of the city with a growing skyline. Going south, development becomes less dense, consisting of single-family homes, strip malls and lower-density office parks.

Many of the reasons people visit Tempe are events like P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon & 1/2 Marathon, Tempe Marketplace, Arizona Mills, Mill Avenue, and Tempe Town Lake. Downtown Tempe offers more than 175 restaurants, nightclubs and retail shops to cater to city guests. Mill Ave is a famous Arizona bar district here containing several bars and restaurants that cater to the growing university crowd. Along with bars and restaurants are business complexes and university buildings. Several long time bar establishments include Mill Ave Cue Club and Rula Bula Irish Pub, among others.