Marseille

Sister cities

• Gdańsk
• Copenhagen
• Abidjan
• Genoa
• Hamburg
• Limassol Municipality
• Metropolitan City of Genoa
• Piraeus
• Kobe
• Haifa
• Tirana
• Thessaloniki

History

Marseille was founded as the Greek colony of Massalia , and was populated by Greek settlers from Phocaea (modern Foça, Turkey). It became the preeminent Greek polis in the Hellenized region of southern Gaul. The city-state sided with the Roman Republic against Carthage during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), retaining its independence and commercial empire throughout the western Mediterranean even as Rome expanded its empire into Western Europe and North Africa. However, the city lost its independence following the Roman Siege of Massilia in 49 BC, during Caesar's Civil War, in which Massalia sided with the exiled faction at war with Julius Caesar. Afterward, the Gallo-Roman culture was initiated. The city maintained its position as a premier maritime trading hub even after its capture by the Visigoths in the fifth century AD, although the city went into decline following the sack of AD 739 by the forces of Charles Martel against the Umayyad Caliphate. It became part of the County of Provence during the tenth century, although its renewed prosperity was curtailed by the Black Death of the 14th century and a sack of the city by the Crown of Aragon in 1423. The city's fortunes rebounded with the ambitious building projects of René of Anjou, Count of Provence, who strengthened the city's fortifications during the mid-15th century. During the 16th century, the city hosted a naval fleet with the combined forces of the Franco-Ottoman alliance, which threatened the ports and navies of the Genoese Republic. Marseille lost a significant portion of its population during the Great Plague of Marseille in 1720, but the population had recovered by mid-century. In 1792, the city became a focal point of the French Revolution, and though France's national anthem was born in…

Geography

Marseille is the second-largest metropolitan area in France after Paris. To the east, starting in the small fishing village of Callelongue on the outskirts of Marseille and stretching as far as Cassis, are the Calanques, a rugged coastal area interspersed with small fjord-like inlets. Farther east still are the Sainte-Baume (a mountain ridge rising from a forest of deciduous trees), the city of Toulon and the French Riviera. To the north of Marseille, beyond the low Garlaban and Etoile mountain ranges, is the Mont Sainte Victoire. To the west of Marseille is the former artists' colony of l'Estaque; farther west are the Côte Bleue, the Gulf of Lion and the Camargue region in the Rhône delta. The Marseille Provence Airport lies to the north west of the city at Marignane on the Étang de Berre. The city's main thoroughfare (the wide boulevard called the Canebière) stretches eastward from the Old Port to the Réformés quarter. Two large forts flank the entrance to the Old Port—Fort Saint-Nicolas on the south side and Fort Saint-Jean on the north. Farther out in the Bay of Marseille is the Frioul archipelago which comprises four islands, one of which, If, is the location of Château d'If, made famous by the Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The main commercial centre of the city intersects with the Canebière at Rue St Ferréol and the Centre Bourse (one of the city's main shopping malls). The centre of Marseille has several pedestrianised zones, most notably Rue St Ferréol, Cours Julien near the Music Conservatory, the Cours Honoré-d'Estienne-d'Orves off the Old Port and the area around the Hôtel de Ville. To the south east of central Marseille in the 6th arrondissement are the Prefecture and the monumental fountain of Place Castellane, an important bus and metro…

Most-observed species

• Grey-leaved Cistus

  Cistus albidus L. · Magnoliopsida
  2,451
• Yellow-legged Gull

  Larus michahellis J.F.Naumann, 1840 · Aves
  1,885
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  1,639
• Tree Medick

  Medicago arborea L. · Magnoliopsida
  1,600
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,545
• Mastic Tree

  Pistacia lentiscus L. · Magnoliopsida
  1,500
• Blue Aphyllanthes

  Aphyllanthes monspeliensis L. · Liliopsida
  1,481
• Japanese Cheesewood

  Pittosporum tobira (Murray) Aiton fil. · Magnoliopsida
  1,426

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2008-12-23
  4 km ENE of Éguilles, France
• M 2.7 — 2008-10-02
  75 km SSW of Six-Fours-les-Plages, France
• M 2.5 — 2008-07-19
  77 km SSW of Six-Fours-les-Plages, France
• M 2.7 — 2008-05-21
  6 km SSW of Carqueiranne, France
• M 2.6 — 2008-04-15
  64 km SSW of Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône, France
• M 2.7 — 2008-03-04
  28 km S of Le Lavandou, France