Seattle is located between Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and Lake Washington. West beyond the Sound are the Olympic Mountains; east beyond Lake Washington and the Eastside (King County, Washington)Eastside suburbs are Lake Sammamish, the Newcastle Hills, Washington, United StatesNewcastle Hills, and the Cascade Range. The rivers, forests, lakes, and fields were once rich enough to support one of the world's few sedentary hunter-gatherer societies. Opportunities for sailing, skiing, bicycling, camping, and hiking are nearby and accessible almost all the year. The city itself, somewhat like San Francisco, is Seven hills of Seattlehilly, though not uniformly so. Like Rome, the city lies on seven hills: First Hill, Seattle, WashingtonFirst Hill, Capitol Hill, Seattle, WashingtonCapitol Hill, Queen Anne Hill, Magnolia, Seattle, WashingtonMagnolia, Beacon Hill, Seattle, WashingtonBeacon Hill, Mount Baker, Seattle, WashingtonMount Baker, and Crown Hill, Seattle, WashingtonCrown Hill. West Seattle allegedly forms an eighth hill, since the highest point in the city rises 520 feet out of the ocean there in the High Point neighbourhood. The hilliest areas are near an isthmus in the city centre, where Downtown rises dramatically away from the chief harbour, an inlet of Puget Sound called Elliott Bay. The geography of Downtown and its immediate environs has been significantly altered by Denny Regraderegrading projects, a Alaskan Way Seawallseawall, and the construction of an artificial island, Harbor Island, at the mouth of the city's industrial Duwamish Waterway. The man-made Lake Washington Ship Canal bisects the city, incorporating four natural bodies of water: Lake Union, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, and Union Bay. The canal connects Puget Sound to Lake Washington, the Hiram M. Chittenden LocksChittenden Locks (Ballard Locks) forming the juncture where saltwater meets freshwater. An active geological fault, the Seattle Fault, runs under the city. Although neither the Seattle Fault nor the Cascadia subduction zoneCascadia Subduction Zone have caused an earthquake since the city’s founding, the city has been hit by four major earthquakes: December 14 1872 (Richter scalemagnitude 7.3); April 13, 1949 (7.1); April 29, 1965 (6.5); and the Nisqually Earthquake of February 28, 2001 (6.8). The Cascadia subduction zone poses the even greater threat of an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or greater, capable of seriously damaging the city and collapsing many buildings, particularly Downtown and in the Industrial District, which is built on fill. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 369.2 square kilometrekm sq (142.5 square miles), 217.2 km sq (83.9 mi sq) of which is land and 152.0 km sq (58.7 mi sq) water. The total area is 41.16% water. ''See also:'' Seattle neighborhoods, List of Seattle parks, Bodies of water of Seattle, Seven hills of Seattle Annexations: *May 3 1891http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle%2C_Washington