Alberta is one of the three prairie provinces in western Canada. It borders British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the northwest to the northwest, and Montana to the south. Alberta lies between 49° and 60° north latitude, 1217 kilometers long from north to south, 293 to 650 kilometers wide from east to west, and covers an area of ​​approximately 660,000 square kilometers. The western part of the province is a rocky mountain, which is a forested area, and belongs to the northern coniferous forest; the eastern part is a plain, which belongs to a grassland area. Herbs are used in some areas as the main vegetation component. In 2004, the population was approximately 3.18 million, of which two-thirds lived in Edmonton, the capital, and Calgary, the largest city.