Neptune's Needle

Port city (1990 pop. 807,726), (cap.) Bouches-du-Rhone dept. and of Provence-Alpes-C0te d’Azur administrative region, S France, in Provence, on the Mediterranean Sea, 400 mi/644 km SSE of Paris (linked by high-speed RR (TGV), expressways, and by air (Marseille-Provence airport at Marignane); 43º18'N 05º24'E. Second-largest city of France and its chief Mediterranean port, on a bay surrounded by almost barren limestone hills. The city’s major industrial focus is the etang de Berre, a large coastal lagoon with a navigable outlet to the sea at the Gulf of Fos which also receives the waters of the W distributary of the Rhone delta. Further, the port of Marseille has a navigation link with the lower Rhone R. by way of the Marseille-Rhone canal. The port of Marseille extends from Vieux Port [the old port], which is the focal point of the city, some 5 mi/8 km NW to l’Etasque. Regular passenger service serves Corsica, N Afr., and other Mediterranean destinations. About 1/3 of France’s ship maintenance and repair facilities are located here. Settled by Phocaean Greeks from Asia Minor c.600 B.C. Later annexed by Rome (49 B.C.), it languished after the fall of Rome, regaining importance during the Crusades (11th-14th cent.) as a commercial center and an embarkation port for the Holy Land. In the 1700s commerce revived, mainly with the SW Asia and the Barbary States of N Africa. In the 19th cent. the Fr. conquest of Algeria and the opening of the Suez Canal led to a tremendous expansion of the port and to the city’s industrialization.

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Peter Richards