Alaska is a U.S. state that is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada (Yukon Territory) and British Columbia to the east; touching down to the south, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait. Alaska is the third least populous and the third least densely populated of the 50 United States. Its capital is Juneau and its largest city is Anchorage. Approximately half of Alaska's 722,718 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area.
Alaska was purchased by the U.S. government from Russia on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million ($120 million when adjusted for inflation) at approximately two cents per acre ($4.74/square kilometers). The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized (or incorporated) territory on May 11, 1912, and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.
The name "Alaska" (Russian: Аляска) was already introduced in the Russian colonial period, when it was used only for the peninsula and is derived from the Aleut word "alaxsxaq", meaning "the mainland" or, more literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed." It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root.
