Charleston is a coastal city in the counties of Berkeley and Charleston in the state of South Carolina. Charleston is rich in heritage and culture and has more old-world charm that most cities. The city was originally founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location in 1680. Up until 1800, Charleston was the fourth largest city in The United States, behind Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston. It adopted its present name in 1783. Charleston is also known as The Holy City, due to the prominence of churches on the low-rise cityscape, particularly the numerous steeples which dot the city's skyline.
As of 2007, the estimated the population of the city proper as 118,270; making it the 2nd most populous city in South Carolina behind the state capital Columbia. Current trends put Charleston as the fastest growing central city in South Carolina. The metropolitan area population of Charleston and North Charleston was estimated to be 601,020 in 2007 (includes entire populations of Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester Counties). This ranks Charleston-North Charleston as the 2nd largest individual metropolitan statistical area in the state behind Columbia. Nearly 80% of the Charleston metro population lives inside the city and its surrounding urbanized area (2000 pop.: 423,410).
The city of Charleston is located roughly at the mid-point of South Carolina's coastline, at the junction of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. Charleston's name is derived from Charles Towne, named after King Charles II of England.
Charleston's climate is pretty warm. The average tempature in July is 82 degrees. January's average tempature is 55 degrees. The Summer is the wettest season, accounting for nearly half of the year's annual rainfall. The winter is short and mild. Snowflakes occasionally fall in the winter.
(Wikipedia)