Mobile is the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, in the United States, sitting on the west side of the harbor now called Mobile Bay at the Gulf of Mexico. Founded in 1702, the city covers 466 square kilometers at an elevation of just 3 meters and has a population of 187,041. Its low ground and bay frontage shaped both its founding and its long military and commercial history. Few American cities carry as many layers of colonial rule as Mobile does.
Key facts
- Country: United States
- Type: city in the United States; big city
- Located in: Mobile County
- Coordinates: 30.7277, -88.0527
- Population: 187,041
- Area: 466 km²
- Elevation: 3 m
- Founded: 1702
Founding and setting
Bienville founded Mobile in 1702, naming the settlement after the nearby Maubila Indians and placing it on the west side of the harbor now known as Mobile Bay. The site put the colony directly on the Gulf of Mexico, giving it a port from its earliest days. Today the city sits at coordinates 30.7277, -88.0527, at an elevation of only 3 meters, a low profile that has long tied it closely to the bay’s water and tides.
Colonial rule and the six flags
During the colonial period Mobile passed from French to British to Spanish control before the Americans seized it in 1813. That succession of rulers earned Mobile its nickname, the “city of flags”: six flags have flown over it, French, British, Spanish, Republic of Alabama, Confederacy, and the United States. Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who would later found Detroit, became governor of the Mobile colony in 1713, one of several figures whose careers tied the city to the wider story of French colonial America.
Civil War history
Mobile Bay was the site of major Civil War naval action. Confederate officer Franklin Buchanan, the only man ever to hold the rank of full admiral in the Confederacy, commanded the ironclad defenses at Mobile Bay. Opposing him was David Farragut, who won the Battle of Mobile Bay after 51 years as a naval officer, having entered naval service at the age of eight.
Historic architecture
Mobile has dozens of historic districts containing about 6,000 buildings and homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Of those, 350 date to the antebellum period, giving the city one of the denser concentrations of pre-Civil War architecture in the region.
Did you know
- Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who later founded Detroit, became governor of the Mobile colony in 1713. (kids.kiddle.co)
- Confederate officer Franklin Buchanan was the only man ever to hold the rank of full admiral in the Confederacy, and he commanded the ironclad defenses at Mobile Bay. (battlefields.org)
- David Farragut, who won the Battle of Mobile Bay, had by then been a naval officer for 51 years, having entered naval service at just eight years old. (battlefields.org)
Data sources
Data updated: 2026-11-12