Annapolis is the capital of Maryland, which is a state of the United States of America, and the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It is a city with a population of 36,217 according to the 2004 census. The city is a part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, It is situated on the Severn River about 2 miles from its entrance into Chesapeake Bay, 26 miles South by East from Baltimore and about the same distance East by North from Washington D.C. It is also home to the United States Naval Academy and St. John's College.

The Maryland State House is the oldest in continuous legislative use in the United States. Construction started in 1772, and the Maryland legislature first met there in 1779. It is topped by the largest wooden dome built without nails in the nation. The Maryland state house housed the workings of the government from November 26, 1783 to August 13, 1784, and the Treaty of Paris was ratified there on January 14, 1784, so Annapolis became the first peacetime capital of the US.

It was in the Maryland state house that George Washington famously resigned his commission before the Continental Congress on December 23, 1783. George Washington, who had argued vigorously for Annapolis to become the permanent home to the United States Capitol, had a strong attachment to the Maryland state house and instructed Pierre L'Enfant to model the dome of the Capitol building in Washington DC after it.

The United States Naval Academy was founded in 1845 on the site of Fort Severn, and now occupies an area of land reclaimed from the Severn River next to the Chesapeake Bay. 

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