Guwahati lies between the banks of the Brahmaputra River and the foothills of the Shillong plateau, with LGB International Airport to the west and the town of Narengi to the east.

The Guwahati Municipal Corporation, the city's local government, administers an area of 216 square kilometres (83 sq mi).

[4] The Guwahati region hosts diverse wildlife including rare animals such as Asian elephants, pythons, tigers, rhinoceros, gaurs, primate species, and endangered birds.

[20] As per the legends constructed in the Yogini Tantra, the tank Dighalipukhuri located in the heart of the city was dug by King Bhagadatta of Kamrup on the occasion of the wedding of his daughter Bhanumati with Duryodhan.

Descriptions by Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang) reveal that during the reign of the Varman king Bhaskaravarman (7th century CE), the city stretched for about 30 li (15 km or 9.3 mi).

[29] During the time of splendor, since the reign of Gadadhar Singha, the Ahom rulers paid their attention to building several temples in various religious sites at Guwahati.

This corridor has facilitated the growth of a southern city sub-center at Ganeshguri, along with other residential areas to the south developed during the past few decades.

The corridor links residential and historically important areas such as Nilachal Hill (Kamakhya), Pandu, and Maligaon (headquarters of Northeast Frontier Railways) before it separates into two – one towards North Guwahati via the Saraighat Bridge and the other continuing west towards LGB International Airport via Gauhati University (Jalukbari).

[13][39] The third major corridor extends towards the east (around 15 km [9.3 mi] from the city-center) linking Noonmati (Guwahati Refinery) and Narengi, and has facilitated residential growth along with it.

A centrally funded four-lane, ambitious East-West Corridor will pass through Guwahati and connect all the state capitals of Northeast India.

The passing of the North Eastern (Reorganization Areas) Act in 1971 by the Indian Parliament accorded Meghalaya the status of a full-fledged state.

It acts as the High Court of Assam and also of Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh with their outlying benches of Kohima, Aizawl and Itanagar, respectively.

Vegetables are transported into Assam from West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra and Meghalaya and the truckers en route have to pay substantial fees as tax at various check posts.

The prices of locally available vegetables and fruits undergo large markup because of transportation expenses grounds, besides intra-State check posts taxes.

The price of poultry, mainly chicken, that reaches the city markets from places like Chaygaon and Barpeta have been soaring rapidly because of similar factors.

There has been steep rise in the price of fish as well, the prominent varieties of which being Rohu ("Rou"), Catla ("Bahu"), Walking catfish ("Magur") and Monopterus ("Kuchia") among many others.

[65] According to experts, urban flooding in Guwahati in the near future is expected to worsen to the point where residents of certain areas may be forced to relocate.

[66] Professor Abani Kumar Bhagawati of Gauhati University stated that since before there were sufficient wetlands to absorb rainwater and channels to carry excess water to the Brahmaputra, the city did not experience floods.

However, human interference has disrupted the natural topography, leading to the current situation where "just half an hour of rain" can cause flooding in the city.

Encroachment and concretization, which reduce open areas for natural water absorption, are the primary causes of floods according to Bhagawati.

Guwahati has numerous educational institutes and colleges such as: There are various private schools too like: Pandu, located on the banks of the Brahmaputra at the western part of the city, is an ancient urban area that acted as the chief military base for the Ahoms against external invasions.

Pandu port falls under Dhubri-Sadiya National Waterway-2 and is an important terminal and transit point for goods and cargo as well as passenger and tourist vessels.

Construction of both low-level and high-level jetty of fixed terminal, capable of handling container vessels, has been completed and has further enhanced revenue generation for the city.

[80][81][82] Guwahati is served by the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, in Borjhar, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) west from the heart of the city.

With all major domestic and international airlines flying into Guwahati, it is the tenth busiest airport in India in total passenger traffic.

Daily and weekly flights are available to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Kochi, Bangkok, Paro, Kathmandu etc.

National Highway 17 from Sevoke in West Bengal terminates in Jalukbari and connects Guwahati with the major cities of Dhubri and Cooch Behar.

National Highway 15 and its several secondary roads runs through both the banks of River Brahmaputra and connects the Guwahati with the cities of Tezpur, Jorhat, Dibrugarh in Upper Assam and the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

The Rupnath Brahma Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT), located at Betkuchi on NH-37, is the most significant terminal cum transit point with regular day and night bus services from state owned ASTC and private operators plying between Guwahati and other destinations in Assam and Northeast India.

The areas of Adabari and Paltan Bazaar also act as nodal points in providing bus services to towns and cities in Assam and adjoining states.