The city of Halifax was once colonized by the Mi'kmaq, and individuals who resided on the Halifax Harbour named it Jipugtug, which translates to "Great Harbour." The very first Europeans who settled within the region founded the Town of Halifax in the year 1749, and the town that slowly grew across the areas became the Halifax County during the following decades. In 1996, the government merged all the municipal governments within Halifax County.
One of the best locations to visit when exploring Halifax is the Dartmouth Heritage Walk. The Halifax Harbour, South Shores and Eastern Shore are among the other locations to go to when exploring the region. For park lovers, they could visit the Admirals Park, the Atlantic View Trail, where the old rail bridges lead across a large salt marsh and tidal estuary. The Bedford Lions Sandy Lake Park is an interesting location to see forest regeneration. Its trail leads to the Jack Lake lands to the east, where the place for the detention centre was meant to be erected but was never built. The Beechville Lakeside Timberlea Rails to Trails is used by numerous cyclists, skiers, and pedestrians. The trail twists through a path of mixed wood regenerating from logging along spectacular inland bogs that provides access to the narrow lake and stream systems of the Granite Uplands. Martinique Beach Provincial Park is the only known location within the region where the endangered piping plover species nest within the bare sands. Martinique is one of the province's biggest crescent beaches and forms a barrier between the protected marshes and lagoon behind and the Atlantic. Queensland Beach Provincial Park boast of its fine white sand on the narrow beach. The sand contains sandy granites and feldspar crystals that extends several hundred meters from the beach.
The well-known Halifax Regional Municipality is home to a lot of the regions post-secondary students who provide a good influence in the local cultural scene. Their influence has driven the region to prominence as a major cultural centre in Atlantic Canada. The region has several theatres, like The Music Room, The Neptune Theatre, and the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. The city of Halifax is also a popular place for cultural attractions, such as the Symphony Nova Scotia, Khyber ICA, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Neptune Theatre. The entire area is well-known for its nightlife and music scene, mainly in the central urban core.
In the urban area of the city of Halifax is a strong concentration of government services and private sector companies. The city of Halifax is considered the central center for numerous banking, cultural and government activities in the Maritime area. The major industries within the region consist of the Department of National Defence, the Halifax Stanfield International Airport and the Port of Halifax. Recent developments have put a spotlight on its booming real estate. The other active industries of the area are natural gas extraction, forestry, mining, fishing and agriculture. The most common resources found at the city of Halifax are gypsum, limestone, gold, shale, and clay.