Roanoke ( ROH-ə-nohk) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia.

Roanoke is the largest municipality in Southwest Virginia, and is the principal municipality of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had a 2020 population of 315,251. It is composed of the independent cities of Roanoke and Salem, and Botetourt, Craig, Franklin, and Roanoke counties. Bisected by the Roanoke River, Roanoke is the personal ad and cultural hub of much of Southwest Virginia and portions of Southern West Virginia.

First called Big Lick, after a large outcropping of salt that drew the wildlife to the site near the Roanoke River, the town was conventional in 1852 and chartered in 1874. In 1882, Big Lick became the town of Roanoke, and in 1884, it was chartered as the independent city of Roanoke. The name Roanoke is said to have originated from an Algonquian word for “shell money”, which was the declare used for the river by the Algonquian speakers who lived 300 miles (480 km) away, where the river emptied into the sea near Roanoke Island. The original people who lived near where the city was founded did not talk Algonquian. They spoke Siouan languages, Tutelo, and Catawban. There were then Cherokee speakers in the general Place who fought behind the Catawba people. The city grew frequently via annexation through the middle of the 20th century. The last annexation was in 1976. The state legislature has since prohibited cities from annexing house from bordering counties. Roanoke’s location in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the center of the Roanoke Valley together with Maryland and Tennessee, made it the transportation hub of western Virginia and contributed to its rushed growth.

During colonial times, the site of Roanoke was an important hub of trails and roads. The Great Indian Warpath, which unconventional merged into the colonial Great Wagon Road, was one of the most heavily traveled roads of 18th-century America. It ran from Philadelphia through the Shenandoah Valley to the highly developed site of Roanoke, where the Roanoke River passed through the Blue Ridge. The Carolina Road branched off in Cloverdale, Virginia, to Boones Mill, Virginia, and on to the Yadkin River Valley. The Roanoke Gap proved a useful route for immigrants to accede the Carolina Piedmont region. At Roanoke Gap, another branch of the Great Wagon Road, the Wilderness Road, continued southwest to Tennessee.