title: Atomic orbital

text: In the Bohr model, an  electron has a velocity given by formula_83, where is the atomic number, formula_84 is the fine-structure constant, and is the speed of light. In non-relativistic quantum mechanics, therefore, any atom with an atomic number greater than 137 would require its 1s electrons to be traveling faster than the speed of light. Even in the Dirac equation, which accounts for relativistic effects, the wave function of the electron for atoms with formula_85 is oscillatory and unbounded. The significance of element 137, also known as untriseptium, was first pointed out by the physicist Richard Feynman. Element 137 is sometimes informally called feynmanium (symbol Fy). However, Feynman's approximation fails to predict the exact critical value of  due to the non-point-charge nature of the nucleus and very small orbital radius of inner electrons, resulting in a potential seen by inner electrons which is effectively less than . The critical  value, which makes the atom unstable with regard to high-field breakdown of the vacuum and production of electron-positron pairs, does not occur until is about 173. These conditions are not seen except transiently in collisions of very heavy nuclei such as lead or uranium in accelerators, where such electron-positron production from these effects has been claimed to be observed.


title: Atomic orbital

text: There are no nodes in relativistic orbital densities, although individual components of the wave function will have nodes.


title: Atomic orbital

text: In late period 8 elements, a hybrid of 8p and 9p is expected to exist, where "3/2" and "1/2" refer to the total angular momentum quantum number. This "pp" hybrid may be responsible for the p-block of the period due to properties similar to p subshells in ordinary valence shells. Energy levels of 8p and 9p come close due to relativistic spin–orbit effects; the 9s subshell should also participate, as these elements are expected to be analogous to the respective 5p elements indium through xenon.


title: Atomic orbital

text: Bound quantum states have discrete energy levels. When applied to atomic orbitals, this means that the energy differences between states are also discrete. A transition between these states (i.e., an electron absorbing or emitting a photon) can thus happen only if the photon has an energy corresponding with the exact energy difference between said states.


title: Atomic orbital

text: By quantum theory, state 1 has a fixed energy of , and state 2 has a fixed energy of . Now, what would happen if an electron in state 1 were to move to state 2? For this to happen, the electron would need to gain an energy of exactly . If the electron receives energy that is less than or greater than this value, it cannot jump from state 1 to state 2. Now, suppose we irradiate the atom with a broad-spectrum of light. Photons that reach the atom that have an energy of exactly will be absorbed by the electron in state 1, and that electron will jump to state 2. However, photons that are greater or lower in energy cannot be absorbed by the electron, because the electron can jump only to one of the orbitals, it cannot jump to a state between orbitals. The result is that only photons of a specific frequency will be absorbed by the atom. This creates a line in the spectrum, known as an absorption line, which corresponds to the energy difference between states 1 and 2.


title: Atomic orbital

text: The atomic orbital model thus predicts line spectra, which are observed experimentally. This is one of the main validations of the atomic orbital model.


title: Atomic orbital

text: The atomic orbital model is nevertheless an approximation to the full quantum theory, which only recognizes many electron states. The predictions of line spectra are qualitatively useful but are not quantitatively accurate for atoms and ions other than those containing only one electron.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Chennai International Airport is an international airport serving the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu and its metropolitan area. It is located in Tirusulam, southwest of the city centre. Chennai International Airport is the sixth busiest airport in India and third busiest airport for international traffic in India. It was also 49th busiest airport in Asia in 2018 making it one of the four major airports in India under the top 50 list of 2018. In financial year 2021, the airport handled 9.53 million passengers.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The airport is served by the airport metro station of the Chennai Metro and the Tirusulam railway station of the Chennai Suburban Railway system. To cope with the passenger traffic, two new terminals, including one satellite terminal, are under construction to handle 40 million passengers per year. Once completed, it will be India's first airport to have a satellite terminal. The new satellite terminal will be connected through a four way underground walkalator for passenger movement across different terminals. Still, the Tirusulam airport complex is expected to reach saturation by 2035, with a peak capacity of 40 million passengers, and a proposal for a new greenfield airport in Parandur has been approved. Once the new airport is commissioned, both the airports will be functional.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The older domestic and international blocks 2 and 3 were named after former Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu K. Kamaraj and C. N. Annadurai, respectively. It was the first airport in India to have international and domestic terminals located adjacent to each other. It was designed by Creative Group, an India-based architecture firm. The airport serves as the southern regional headquarters of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for South India comprising the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and the union territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The aviation history of the city began in 1910, when a city-based Corsican hotelier Giacomo D'Angelis built an aircraft and tested it in Island Grounds. Inspired by Frenchman, Louis Blériot, the first to fly across English Channel in July 1909, D'Angelis collaborated with Simpson's, a leading coach-builder in the city, to build a biplane. The biplane was built entirely from D'Angelis's own designs, fitted with a small horse-power engine. Samuel John Green, a motor engineer at Simpson's, helped with the manufacture and assembly of the biplane. On 10 March 1910, D'Angelis tested the aircraft in the suburb of Pallavaram, making it the first flight ever in Asia. While demonstrating it to the public during the ticketed show, he even took a person from the crowd on the aircraft as his passenger. Immediately, he also arranged a public viewing at the Island Grounds, charging entrance fees for the demonstration.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The interest in flying among prominent residents of the city resulted in the arrival of a set of aviators in 1911 to display the flying machines they had brought with them to India as a marketing initiative. The aviators included Baron de Caters and Jules Tyck. On 15 February 1911, Tyck flew in a Blériot aeroplane in front of the public. The aircraft was wheeled out by eight men with Tyck seated inside the craft wearing an oilskin coat and goggles. The men held the plane till its engine revved up and then let go, and the craft darted forward about 20 yards before rising into the air. In the air, the craft made a straight flight only for about three-quarters of the length of the ground and descended due to poor weather. Tyck flew again the next day, this time reaching a height of 2,400 feet, which was witnessed by the then Governor of Madras Sir Arthur Lawley. Two days later, on 18 February, another demonstration was given by Pierre de Caters, when he flew his aircraft in public.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The history of civil aviation in India began in December 1912, with the opening of the first domestic air route between Karachi and Delhi by the Indian state Air services in collaboration with the Imperial Airways, United Kingdom. However, it was just an extension of London–Karachi flight of the Imperial Airways. In 1915, the first Indian airline, Tata Air Mail, started a regular airmail service between Karachi and Madras without any patronage from the government, marking the beginning of air transportation in the southern part of India.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: A test flight was conducted at the Island Grounds in 1914, when J. W. Madley, a water works engineer, tested an aircraft assembled by him. He flew it over the Red Hills reservoir to inspect works and shot a couple of aerial photographs of the reservoir from the aircraft.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: In March 1930, a discussion initiated by pilot G. Vlasto led to the founding of Madras Flying Club, which became a pioneer in South India. The club had 71 founding members, of whom 14 were Indians. Flt Lt H N Hawker became the club's first flight instructor. The club's first Indian chief pilot instructor, Mohammed Ismail Khan, trained several pilots, some of whom were trained professionally or others simply for fun. When the state council of Ceylon built an aerodrome at Ratmalana near Colombo in 1935, the first flight to land there was flown by chief flying instructor of the club Tyndale Biscoe. On 26 October 1936, Captain V. Sundaram, who got the first commercial pilot licence in India, flew a de Havilland Dove aircraft from Karachi to Madras.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: On 15 October 1932, when J. R. D. Tata, founder of Tata Sons Ltd, flew a single-engined de Havilland carrying air mail (postal mail of Imperial Airways) from Karachi's Drigh Road Aerodrome to Bombay's Juhu Airstrip via Ahmedabad, the flight was continued to Madras via Bellary piloted by aviator Nevill Vintcent.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Madras Airport was one of the first airports of India, commissioned in 1930. The airport was built on land donated by the former governor of Madras Presidency, K. Sriramulu Naidu. Although the first aircraft landed in Madras Airport in 1930, the usage was confined only to military operations during World War II. In 1952, the Civil Aviation Department took over its operations followed by the AAI in 1972.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The first passenger art deco–style terminal was completed in 1954 on the North East side of Meenambakkam village, thus being referred to as Meenambakkam Airport. In the early 80s, a new terminal was built at Tirusulam and passenger operations were shifted. The new domestic terminal (named Kamaraj Terminal 2) was commissioned in 1985 and the international terminal (named Anna Terminal 3) was commissioned in 1989. The old terminal building became known as Terminal 1 until 2013 and is now used as a cargo terminal for Blue Dart Aviation.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: An air cargo complex was commissioned on 1 February 1978 for processing of import, export, and transshipment cargo, in addition to unaccompanied luggage, which is the second gateway air cargo terminal in the country after the one at Kolkata Airport. In November 1988, British Airways inaugurated a link to London, Chennai's first route to Europe. Flights stopped in Kuwait and were operated by Lockheed L-1011s in the beginning. In April 1991, the airline started performing the flight nonstop with Boeing 747 aircraft.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: On 23 September 1999, a centre for flowers, fruits and vegetables was commissioned at the cargo terminal. In 2001, Chennai Airport received ISO 9001-2000 certification, the first such international airport in India. During the early days, Madras Airport was one of the largest airports in India handling many international flight connections.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Delta Air Lines' maiden flight from New York City via Paris touched down in May 2005. Boeing 767s operated the service. The following November, however, the carrier stopped serving Chennai. Instead of flying to India via Paris, it had decided to commence a direct flight from New York to Mumbai and hand the Chennai–Paris route over to its partner Air France. In 2008, the AAI started major modernisation of the airport.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Chennai Airport is the regional headquarters of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for the southern region of India comprising the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala as well as the union territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep. It functions from the ATC Complex within the airport and has 49 airports under its control, including 19 operational AAI airports, 5 operational private/joint venture airports, 5 non-operational airports, 12 military airports, and 8 disused airfields. These include 6 international airports, 15 domestic airports, and 3 customs airports.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Chennai Airport is the centre of the southern flight information region (FIR), one of the four FIRs that the Indian air space is divided into. The regional executive director (RED) is responsible for the air traffic services over the Chennai FIR and airport management on ground at the airports in South India. The Chennai FIR includes terrestrial air space above the five southern states and two southern union territories and the oceanic air space of the southern part of the Bay of Bengal and the eastern part of the Arabian Sea. Coordination with the neighbouring national FIRs of Kolkata and Mumbai and with the neighbouring international FIRs of Sri Lanka, Kuala Lampur, and Yangon for air traffic control purposes are being made with telecommunication links (both voice and data). The immigration services at the airport are handled by the Bureau of Immigration.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Chennai Airport is the home to the southern regional office of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), whose main responsibilities include instituting standards and measures with respect to security of civil flights at international and domestic airports in India. Security of the airport is provided by the Airport Sector (CISF), that includes a dog squad. The dogs are trained to sniff and identify IEDs and narcotics. While working with the bomb disposal squad they screen the bags left unattended. As of today, the CISF team in charge of Chennai Airport security has a dog squad of 9 dogs.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The Government of India has proposed to offer a contract to a private operator to maintain and operate the daily operations of the airport. AAI recently invited bids for the same and various firms including Tata, Fraport, Celebi, Sahara, GMR, GVK and Essar have shown interest. The airport employees are protesting against the move fearing job losses.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Spread over an area 1323 acres, Chennai International Airport consists of three terminals: the old terminal at Meenambakkam (Terminal 1) used for cargo and the two terminals at the passenger terminal complex at Tirusulam (Terminals 2 and 3) used for domestic and international passenger operations, respectively.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Today, the passenger terminal complex consists of the newer domestic and international terminals interconnected by a link building, the older international block which today houses administrative offices and a restaurant. Although the complex is one continuous structure, it was built incrementally, Anna Terminal (Terminal 3) was added in 1988 to the pre-existing Kamaraj Terminal (Terminal 2).


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The first part to be built was the Kamaraj domestic terminal (Terminal 2) which had two aero-bridges, making it the first airport in India to have aero-bridges at the domestic terminal. Later, the Anna international terminal (Terminal 3) was built with three aero-bridges. After the completion of the international terminal, the old terminal (Terminal 1) at Meenambakkam was used exclusively for cargo.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Recently, the international terminal was extended further west by adding a new block which includes three aero-bridges. At present, the new international block (Terminal 4) is used for departures while the older Anna Terminal (Terminal 3) is used for arrivals.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The international and the domestic terminals cover an area of 1.5 km and 1.8 km, respectively. The airport is divided into two circles, with five zones each, for administrative conveniences. Around 550 acres of the airport premises fall within the St. Thomas Mount and Pallavaram Cantonment Board's limits. The rest of the area comes under the Meenambakkam town panchayat's jurisdiction. The Kamaraj domestic terminal covers an area of with 48 check-in counters. The Anna international terminal covers an area of with 45 check-in counters, 38 immigration counters including 16 at the departure terminal and 22 at the arrival terminal and 18 customs counter including 2 at the departure terminal and 16 at the arrival terminal. There are four entry gates at the airport, two each at both the terminals. There are 5 X-ray baggage facilities at the domestic terminal and 2 at the international terminal. The total area of retail space at the existing domestic and international terminals is 3,250 sq m, comprising 60 concessions including duty-free retail shops, restaurants, snack bars and executive lounges. The Anna international terminal has 6 boarding gates on the first floor. The Kamaraj domestic terminal has a total of 9 boarding gates, including 6 on the ground floor and 3 on the first floor. The airport has 24 taxiways, including the 411-metre-long taxiway M on the southern side commissioned in March 2017, capable of handling 36 aircraft movements per hour. In January 2018, the airport began cross-runway operations to avoid flight delays, increasing aircraft movements from 36 to 42 an hour.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The airport currently has 70 parking bays, one of which can accommodate the super-jumbo Airbus A380. Parking bays at the domestic terminal include one in-contact bay for Airbus A300-sized aircraft, nine in-contact bays for Airbus A320/Boeing 737-sized aircraft, and 49 remote bays for A320/737-sized aircraft. Parking bays at the international terminal include seven in-contact bays for Boeing 747-sized aircraft, 13 remote bays for 747-sized aircraft, one remote bay for an A380 aircraft, and three cargo bays for 747-sized aircraft. Works on the 24 new night parking bays had been completed in the apron area. With the new parking bays, the Chennai Airport has 81 parking bays.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The airport was modernised and expanded in 2013, with the construction of a new international terminal (Terminal 4), the renovation of the existing Anna international terminal (Terminal 3), the construction of a new domestic terminal (Terminal 1), the extension of the secondary runway, and the creation of a parallel runway, taxiways, aprons, parking bays and cargo terminal. The new terminals spread across and have 72 passenger check-in counters. However, the plan for the parallel runway has been dropped.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The original plan to build a three-basement-level car parking for about 1,500 vehicles with about 8,000 sq m of commercial area on the open ground opposite the new domestic terminal building has been deferred temporarily. Instead, a surface-level parking to accommodate 400 vehicles has been planned at a cost of 44.2 million.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The terminal complex will have a flyover travellator connecting the existing newer terminals for a distance of about 1 km. It will have an elevated road on the top and a tube below which will have two walkalators which will connect the three brand new terminals together. The 600 m long walkalator belt was installed on 14 April 2018 at a cost of 260 million.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The current development projects include construction of a brand new integrated terminal in place of the older Terminals 2 and 3 which currently lie in between the two newer Terminals 1 and 4. The design is a collaborative effort of team lead involving Frederic Schwartz Architects, Gensler, and led by New Delhi-based Creative Group. Creative Group is the principal architect for the project providing comprehensive architecture and engineering consultancy for the design of the passenger terminal building, parking garage structures and roadway access system. The proposed design, based on Gensler's Terminal 2015 concept, will be connected with the design elements of the existing Terminals 1 and 4. It was earlier reported that the new terminal building will have a handling capacity of 10 million passengers and when integrated with the existing terminals will provide for a handling capacity of 23 million passengers a year. The new terminal building is expected to have an area of about 1,40,000 m with 104 check-in counters, 16 aero-bridge and 60 immigration counters and the two runways would be interconnected by a network of taxiways. The 24,760-million expansion programme commenced on 11 July 2018 and will be completed by December 2022. Once completed, it will serve as the airport's sole integrated terminal alongside the newer Terminals 1 and 4.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The design details of the runways are handled by the Airports Authority of India, while architecture firms are limited to designing buildings on the land side of the runway. The present proposal is parallel to the existing runway. The entire design as being organised around "two lush sustainable gardens" and the wing-like roofs helps collect rainwater and become part of the garden.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The domestic terminal building currently measures and handles 4.74 million passengers a year. The revamped design of the domestic terminal building will accommodate twice as many passengers in a three-storey structure 984 ft long. The new design, based on the organisation of security and passenger circulation, centres around two lush, ecologically sustainable gardens each measuring nearly an acre and includes a parking garage with a green roof over 300 m long and rainwater capture systems collectively known as the "green gate" of the terminal. Expansive glass curtain walls will be incorporated to boost the feeling of airiness and spaciousness, as will skylights. The new terminal will have three levels. The departure area will be featured on the top level with the arrivals section on ground level. The arrivals section will form the base for airlines and other offices with the basement reserved for luggage scanners. The domestic terminal covers 67,700 sq m and will also have a provision of seven gates, two hard-stand hold rooms and 52 check-in counters, besides eight counters for e-ticketing. The international terminal will cover 59,300 sq m with the provision of two gates with multiple hard-stand hold rooms, 52 check-in counters, eight counters for e-ticketing, 18/10 immigration/Custom counters for handling passenger arrival and 18/4 immigration/Custom counters for outgoing passengers. Both the terminals will be equipped with an in-line baggage handling system capable of Level 4 security screening system. This system consists of four departure conveyors of a total length of 3,500 m and can handle 1,200 baggages per hour.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The new terminal buildings measure more than . The new terminal buildings are expected to cater to 14 million more passengers per annum, including 4 million per annum at the international terminals. With the existing terminals handling 9 million, the airport will be able to handle 23 million passengers per annum after the integration with 16 million in domestic and 7 million in the international terminal. After expansion, the aircraft movements in the airport is likely to increase at the rate of 5 to 7%. By 2020–21, the airport is expected to handle 700 movements a day. The new terminals are expected to clock between 72 and 75 green points of the total 100 for integrated inhabited assessment. The AAI has divided the building for land-side and air-side operations. The spaces are connected with a central security checkpoint for departure and there is a glass bridge on each side of the building for arriving passengers. On the roadside, the new terminals are connected with an elevated corridor, which will have approach and exit ramps. The power requirement at the expanded airport is around 110 kV•A – more than three times the current needs. A new 11,000 kV sub-station has been built by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) at the airport to serve the terminals, for which the power has been sourced from Kadapperi near Tambaram. The retail space earmarked in the new international and domestic terminals is about 9,000 sq m, nearly thrice as much as the existing one.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: In recent years, there were many reported incidents of ceiling collapses and glass door and window breakages due to the poor quality and improper design of work during the recent modernisation of the airport terminals. The first incident happened on 13 May 2013 when 20 panels caved in near the security hold area due to heavy winds, followed by another incident on 11 August when 23 panels behind the check-in counters at the terminal crashed due to heavy condensation. The last reported incident of a ceiling collapse happened in late April 2015, bringing the total number of incidents to an abnormal 45. As on 11 August 2015, the number of incidents have reached 50 which has been a point of discussion in social networking sites.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The Air Cargo Complex at the Chennai Airport was established in 1978, when all regulatory and facilitating agencies were brought under one roof for faster processing/clearance of international cargo, to cater for air cargo movement in the southern region. At the cargo terminal, AAI functions as ground handling agency for airlines for handling or processing their cargo on ground and acts as custodian on behalf of customs import/export cargo under the customs act of 1962. Spread over an area of 19.5 acres, the complex uses cargo-handling equipments such as elevated transfer vehicle, forklifts, high-mast stackers, and power hydraulic pallet trucks for handling cargo. The covered area of the export wing of the complex is 20,595 sq m while that of the import wing is 20,090 sq m. The existing covered area of cargo terminal in occupation of AAI is 37,085 sq m. There are three ETV build-up/working stations and 18 manual build-up ETV loading positions at the complex.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The cargo complex consists of two divisions, namely, the export and the import facilities. The export facility covers an area of 16,366 sq m and the import facility covers 16,500 sq m. The complex has an exclusive cargo apron which can accommodate three wide-bodied aircraft with ULD parking area and hydrant-refuelling facility at the bay. The Customs department has appointed AAI and AI as the custodian at the complex. The import cargo of all the airlines is solely handled by AAI. The export cargo, on the other hand, is handled by AAI in respect of airlines handled by it while those of the rest of the airlines are handled by AI.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The existing capacity of the air cargo complex is expected to meet the requirement till 2020. Phase III and IV of the new integrated cargo terminal with latest automated storage and retrieval system is under construction, enhancing the area from 35,920 sq m to 54,620 sq m.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The upcoming import cargo storage and processing facility would have a capacity to handle almost 800,000 tonnes of cargo annually from the existing 300,000 tonnes. The new complex will have an area of 58,000 sq m against the current area of 26,000 sq m. The conventional way of warehouse management will be replaced by automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) The ASRS would have over 8,000 storage bins and each bin would have a capacity to store 1.3 to 1.5 tonnes of cargo in it. Apart from ASRS, the upcoming facilities would also have multiple temperature-controlled cold storages for perishable cargo, with three chambers at 0 to 12 °C covering a total area of 445 sq m. There would be three fully secured strong rooms for storage and processing of high value cargo, such as gems, jewellery, gold and silver, both in export and import together. The new facility would also have dedicated isolated storage locations for handling dangerous and hazardous cargo.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: In 2009, an integrated cargo complex was planned in the cargo complex of the airport. The complex would be constructed, at a cost of 1,450 million, in 15 months. While the ground floor would measure 21,000 sq m, the first floor would be built on 12,100 sq m. The new building would be used exclusively for import activities. Once the civil works were completed, the ASRS would be installed. It would cost 750 million.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Chennai is the home to India's biggest air traffic control (ATC) centre. The ATC tower is located at the Air Traffic Services Complex. There are two radars in Chennai—the mono-pulse secondary surveillance radar at Porur and the Chennai Westing House (terminal) radar. Advance surface movement guidance and control system has been introduced in the ATC tower.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: As a first step towards integrating the entire airspace in the country, the automation system at the ATC in Chennai Airport was commissioned on 1 October 2011. The AAI has invested 420 million for the Chennai automation system, which runs on Auto Track 3+, a sophisticated air traffic control automation system supplied and installed by US-based Raytheon Technologies. A new route radar at Porur has also been installed and the 13-year-old terminal radar at the airport will be replaced. With the automation system in place, all information regarding tower control, approach control, area control and oceanic control would be exchanged electronically in Chennai. It would ensure reliability, thereby enhancing safety of aircraft and passengers.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Chennai is among the four flight information centres in the country besides Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, and the Chennai ATC has Hyderabad, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore under its control. Besides the two radars in Chennai, radar systems in Mangaluru, Bangalore, Bangalore HAL, Shamshabad (Hyderabad), Bellary and Thiruvananthapuram are included in the new system. With the advanced integrated radar technology, ATC in Chennai now has the entire South Indian region on its radar screens, mainly co-ordinating flight movements above 26,000 to 46,000 ft.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Following the Performance-based navigation system (PBN) and the air traffic control automation, in 2011, the AAI initiated a pilot project on a Ground-based augmentation system (GBAS), as part of implementing Gagan (Geo Augmented Navigation) in the country. There will be a set of 3–4 GPS satellites, one geo-synchronous satellite, GPS receivers at end of the runways, a ground station and a VHF data broadcast system. When the pilot project starts, Chennai Airport will be the first airport in the country to have the facility.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Chennai Airport has two runways—the long primary runway No 07/25 (North-east – South-west orientation) and the long secondary runway No 12/30 (North-west – South-east orientation). Approach lights include CAT-1 category at runway 07 and CAT-1 type at runway 25 for 510 m. Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI)-type landing aids are available in all the runways. Routine maintenance work of the primary runway is carried out twice a week—between 2.30 pm and 4.30 pm on Tuesdays and Saturdays.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Chennai Airport does not have rapid exit taxiways that help pilots to vacate a runway without slowing down the aircraft soon after landing. Planes such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8 will have to slow down completely to negotiate sharp turns on the taxiway. In 2011, AAI began work on upgrading the existing taxiways and parking bays at the airport to handle these jumbo planes.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The secondary runway, which was initially 2,035 m long, was closed in 2009 to extend it over the Adyar River by means of a bridge over the watercourse at a cost of 4,300 million. Initially, 126.59 acres of land for second runway was handed over to the AAI. In March 2011, by acquiring 136 acres of land from the state government, AAI completed extension of the 2,035 m secondary runway by 1,400 m, whose commissioning, initially planned to be by November 2011, has been delayed as the approach lighting system has not been installed. While the cost of extending the runway was projected to be about 2,400 million, that of the bridge is almost 2,300 million. A bridge has been constructed across the Adyar River to extend the secondary runway by a length of 1,400 m to a total length of 3,445 m, including 835 m on the northern side of the river. The bridge accommodates the runway and a taxiway, making Chennai Airport the only international airport in India to have a runway across a river. In Mumbai, only an end of the runway is over Mithi River. When the AAI recommissions the secondary runway, Chennai Airport will join the league of airports with a functional runway across a river.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: With a new airport under consideration, the project for a parallel runway has been put on hold and the total land required for the airport expansion reduced from 1,069.99 acres to 800 acres. AAI planned to operate 2,400 m even after removing obstructions. About 2,085 m of the runway was earlier used for landing only smaller aircraft, like ATR types. In February 2012, airport authorities announced that only about 2,160 m of the secondary runway would be operational as there will be 330 m permanent displacement at GST road side and 780 m displacement at the other end. This restricted length would be enough to operate Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft without load penalty. Bad planning by the airport authorities, which has resulted in the removal of the very-high-frequency omni range equipment (VOR) from its original location where a link way has been constructed between the main and the secondary runways, has been considered the reason behind the delay.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The present runway occupancy time at the airport (the time an aircraft spends on the runway) is around 70 seconds. By October 2018, the runway occupancy time will be reduced to 60 seconds, with the completion of the ongoing runway development works.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: In 2018, the airport acquired 151 acres for expansion works from neighbouring areas including Kolappakkam, Manappakkam, St. Thomas Mount and Cowl Bazaar. Expansion works includes installation of simple approach lighting systems for secondary runway, construction of hangars and parallel taxi track for the airport, fuel farm, installation of CAT 1 approach lighting system for the main runway, and a wide-aperture localiser antenna.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: As of 2018, the existing parking lot at the airport can accommodate 1,200 cars. In June 2018, an 2,500-million multi-level car park with a capacity to accommodate 2,237 cars was planned at both ends of the Airport Metro Rail station in front of the airport on a 4.25-acre plot. It will have a built-up area of one million square feet and will be 27 metres tall with six levels. In addition, a 250,000-square-feet mall will be built by the Olympia Group and Larsen & Toubro in 18 months. The mall will have a 238,100-square-feet cinema multiplex and a 35,678-square-feet 59-key transit hotel facility. The parking facility will be connected to the travelator linking the international and domestic terminals. Construction began in March 2019 and was completed in December 2021 after several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic impact. It is expected to open in July 2022 after going through a trial run.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Domestic flights operate from Terminal 1, international departures operate from Terminal 4, while the older Terminal 3 is used for international arrivals. The old terminal at Meenambakkam is used for cargo operations.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: TajSATS, a joint-venture of the Indian Hotels Company and SATS (formerly known as Singapore Airport Terminal Services) provides in-flight catering at Chennai Airport. TajSATS adheres to ISO 22000:2005 standards and achieved Halal Certification. It also manages airport lounges in Chennai and Mumbai airports. The airline lounges at Chennai Airport include Maharaja Lounge at the international terminal and the Indian Airlines Lounge at the domestic terminal. The Taj Madras Flight Kitchen, a joint-venture of the Indian Hotels, SATS and Malaysia Airlines started in 1994, is situated at GST Road, Pallavaram, and operates airport restaurants at the airport. The Taj Madras Flight Kitchen also has a multi-cuisine restaurant with a full-fledged bar named 'Flights of Fancy' at the airport serving snacks and refreshments.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: In 2008, Simplifly Deccan opened a US$2.9 million maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) hangar at Chennai International Airport. The 70,000 sq ft facility can handle one A320 or two ATR aircraft and provides basic- and medium-level maintenance checks and protective storage for Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines aircraft and functions as a repair shop and assembly area. The hangar, which took nearly two years to build, has a total construction area of 3,200 sq m. The maintenance hall spans 46 m wide, 54 m deep and 17 m high. The hangar has space for one Airbus A320 and 2 ATR aircraft at one time. It is equipped with an engineering and training facility and an engineering maintenance conference room.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The airport houses many duty-free shops and restaurants in its lobby. The authority is planning to open more shops in the premises. It is said that around 18,500 sq ft of space is available for shops. Recently, Flemingo International, Dubai was given the contract to open duty-free shops in both the International and Domestic terminals.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The airport is situated on the Grand Southern Trunk Road (National Highway 32), a major national highway connecting several cities within the state. The airport is served by Tirusulam railway station on the Suburban railway network. Airport prepaid taxis are available round the clock, with moderate fares fixed by the government. The airport metro station of the Chennai Metro connects the airport to other parts of the city, making it the second airport in India to be connected to a metro system. Shuttle services between the metro station and the terminals are provided for the passengers. In future, the concourse of the metro station will be linked to the passenger terminals by means of a connector tube connecting the metro station to the flyover at the terminals, so that passengers alighting from the train can go to the departure area of the airport terminals without coming out of the station building. The Tirusulam suburban train station will also be integrated with the metro station and the airport. A flyover at the entrance of the airport helps the traffic on GST road bypass the entrance. The Kathipara grade-separator at Guindy facilitates the traffic flowing from the city centre onto the airport side.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: A vertical garden was constructed in the terminals at a cost of 400 million. The garden has about 40 different varieties of plants. The garden is visible from the terminals and also the connecting tube that links the landside to the airside (the area closer to the runway). The garden is watered using the drip irrigation method.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: An integrated simulator will be installed at Chennai Airport, which will be the first of its kind in the country, at a cost of 200 million. The equipment will be set up at the Air Traffic Services complex.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: In January 2018, a satellite terminal near the second runway was planned to be built in 3 years. A 1.5 km tunnel to connect the satellite terminal with the main buildings has been planned at a cost of 7,000 million. This tunnel will run at a depth of 10.5 feet below the ground.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Following the 23,000 million phase I expansion that began in 2007 and completed in 2013, the phase II expansion comes at a cost of 25,870 million is expected to begin in 2018, aimed to be completed in 42 months by September 2021. This will expand the area to 160,000 m, with a capacity of 35 million passengers, up from the existing capacity of 18 million. With the completion, the new building will serve as the sole integrated terminal alongside the existing newer domestic and international terminals.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: As of July 2018, the AAI had acquired 130 acres of land for the expansion of the present airport, and acquisition of another 101 acres of land is in progress.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Construction of the new integrated terminal is under progress and completion is expected by December 2022, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Commission will be done in two phases, the primary at June 2021. Automatic boarding, additional food courts, expansive baggage claim and arrival area, extra greenery, and state-of-the-art architecture designs are features of the new terminal. Officials say with this they will be able to surpass the present service rank of the airport, which was lacked in poor maintenance, both nationally and internationally.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: The airport lagged in star ratings a lot behind other comparative major airports like Bangalore, Kolkata, and Hyderabad in Skytrax Airport Awards and other reviews due to its insufficient terminal space and sanitization facilities at restrooms.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: In 2012, the feasibility report of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), suggested that a second airport for the city could come up on at Sriperumbudur, was submitted to the state government. The four-runway second airport is proposed to be built on 4,823 acres near Sriperumbudur, southwest of Chennai, at an estimated cost of 35,000 million in the first phase and Second phase has not been disclosed. To be built in two phases, the anticipated expenditure for phase I of the project is 40,000 million with an 87,000 sq m terminal along with a parking space for 750 vehicles. The second phase involves 1,50,000 sq m of terminal and enhancing parking space to accommodate 1,500 vehicles at an investment of 14,750 million. The greenfield airport will be able to handle 40 million passengers per annum.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: As of September 2019, the State government has shortlisted six locations for the second international airport. These include Thiruporur (40 km from the present airport), Vallathur (70 km), Thodur (55 km), Mappedu (46 km), Cheyyar (90 km), and Maduramangalam (55 km).


title: Chennai International Airport

text: In August 2022, the state government finally selected Parandur in Kanchipuram district as location for the new greenfield airport. The New Chennai Greenfield International Airport in Parandur, will take a minimum 5 to 7 years to be built.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: Apart from the expansion of the existing airport at Tirusulam, the new greenfield airport at Parandur would come up on 4970 acres of land.


title: Chennai International Airport

text: In December 2015, unprecedented rainfall associated with India's North-east monsoon caused extensive flooding of the airport tarmac and runways. The airport was closed for a week to all traffic by the AAI from the evening of 1 December until noon on 6 December. About 1,500 passengers and 2,000 airport workers were evacuated as water entered terminal buildings and 30-35 aircraft were stranded on the apron. Military authorities permitted the use of Naval Air Station INS Rajali in Arakkonam, 70 km (43 mi) west of central Chennai and Tambaram Air Force Station 20 km (12 mi) south as relief airports for a limited service of civilian commercial flights as well as official rescue/assistance flights. Additionally, Indian Air Force evacuated passengers from Chennai Airport to the two military bases for onward journeys on Air Force transport aircraft to other domestic destinations. On 5 December, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation permitted a partial re-opening of the airport during daylight hours under visual meteorological conditions only, allowing airlines to ferry stranded aircraft out of Chennai without passengers or cargo on board. Operations under instrument meteorological conditions were not permitted. Rescue and assistance flights, however, were permitted to operate in and out of the airport.


title: Provence

text: Provence (, , , , ; or "Prouvènço" , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It largely corresponds with the modern administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and includes the departments of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, as well as parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse. The largest city of the region and its modern-day capital is Marseille.


title: Provence

text: The Romans made the region the first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it "Provincia Romana", which evolved into the present name. Until 1481 it was ruled by the Counts of Provence from their capital in Aix-en-Provence, then became a province of the Kings of France. While it has been part of France for more than 500 years, it still retains a distinct cultural and linguistic identity, particularly in the interior of the region.


title: Provence

text: The region got its name in Roman times, when it was known as "Provincia Romana", simply "the Roman province". This eventually was shortened to Provincia (the province), and as the language evolved from Latin to Provençal, so did the pronunciation and spelling.


title: Provence

text: The coast of Provence has some of the earliest known sites of human habitation in Europe. Primitive stone tools dating back 1 to 1.05 million years BC have been found in the Grotte du Vallonnet near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, between Monaco and Menton. More sophisticated tools, worked on both sides of the stone and dating to 600,000 BC, were found in the Cave of Escale at Saint Estėve-Janson; tools from 400,000 BC and some of the first fireplaces in Europe were found at Terra Amata in Nice. Tools dating to the Middle Paleolithic (300,000 BC) and Upper Paleolithic (30,000–10,000 BC) were discovered in the Observatory Cave, in the Jardin Exotique of Monaco.


title: Provence

text: The Paleolithic period in Provence saw great changes in the climate. Two ice ages came and went, the sea level changed dramatically. At the beginning of the Paleolithic, the sea level in western Provence was 150 meters higher than today. By the end of the Paleolithic, it had dropped to 100 to 150 metres below the sea level today. The cave dwellings of the early inhabitants of Provence were regularly flooded by the rising sea or left far from the sea and swept away by erosion.


title: Provence

text: The changes in the sea level led to one of the most remarkable discoveries of signs of early man in Provence. In 1985, a diver named Henri Cosquer discovered the mouth of a submarine cave 37 metres below the surface of the Calanque de Morgiou near Marseille. The entrance led to a cave above sea level. Inside, the walls of the Cosquer Cave are decorated with drawings of bison, seals, auks, horses and outlines of human hands, dating to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC.


title: Provence

text: The end of the Paleolithic and beginning of the Neolithic period saw the sea settle at its present level, a warming of the climate and the retreat of the forests. The disappearance of the forests and the deer and other easily hunted game meant that the inhabitants of Provence had to survive on rabbits, snails and wild sheep. In about 6000 BC, the Castelnovian people, living around Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, were among the first people in Europe to domesticate wild sheep, and to cease moving constantly from place to place. Once they settled in one place they were able to develop new industries. Inspired by pottery from the eastern Mediterranean, in about 6000 BC they created the first pottery made in France.


title: Provence

text: Around 6000 BC, a wave of new settlers from the east, the Chasséens, arrived in Provence. They were farmers and warriors, and gradually displaced the earlier pastoral people from their lands. They were followed about 2500 BC by another wave of people, also farmers, known as the Courronniens, who arrived by sea and settled along the coast of what is now the Bouches-du-Rhône.


title: Provence

text: Traces of these early civilisations can be found in many parts of Provence. A Neolithic site dating to about 6,000 BC was discovered in Marseille near the Saint-Charles railway station. and a dolmen from the Bronze Age (2500–900 BC) can be found near Draguignan.


title: Provence

text: Between the 10th and 4th century BC, the Ligures were found in Provence from Massilia as far as modern Liguria. They were of uncertain origin; they may have been the descendants of the indigenous Neolithic peoples. According to Strabo, the Ligurians, living in proximity of numerous Celtic mountain tribes, were a different people (), but "were similar to the Celts in their modes of life". They did not have their own alphabet, but their language remains in place names in Provence ending in the suffixes -"asc", -"osc". -"inc", -"ates", and -"auni". The ancient geographer Posidonius wrote of them: "Their country is savage and dry. The soil is so rocky that you cannot plant anything without striking stones. The men compensate for the lack of wheat by hunting... They climb the mountains like goats." They were also warlike; they invaded Italy and went as far as Rome in the 4th century BC, and they later aided the passage of Hannibal, on his way to attack Rome (218 BC). Traces of the Ligures remain today in the dolmens and other megaliths found in eastern Provence, in the primitive stone shelters called 'Bories' found in the Luberon and Comtat, and in the rock carvings in the Valley of Marvels near Mont Bégo in the Alpes-Maritimes, at an altitude of 2,000 meters.


title: Provence

text: Between the 8th and 5th centuries BC, tribes of Celtic peoples, probably coming from Central Europe, also began moving into Provence. They had weapons made of iron, which allowed them to easily defeat the local tribes, who were still armed with bronze weapons. One tribe, called the Segobriga, settled near modern-day Marseille. The Caturiges, Tricastins, and Cavares settled to the west of the Durance river.


title: Provence

text: Celts and Ligurians spread throughout the area and the Celto-Ligures eventually shared the territory of Provence, each tribe in its own alpine valley or settlement along a river, each with its own king and dynasty. They built hilltop forts and settlements, later given the Latin name . Today the traces 165 are found in the Var, and as many as 285 in the Alpes-Maritimes. They worshipped various aspects of nature, establishing sacred woods at Sainte-Baume and Gemenos, and healing springs at Glanum and Vernègues. Later, in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the different tribes formed confederations; the Voconces in the area from the Isère to the Vaucluse; the Cavares in the Comtat; and the Salyens, from the Rhône river to the Var. The tribes began to trade their local products, iron, silver, alabaster, marble, gold, resin, wax, honey and cheese; with their neighbours, first by trading routes along the Rhône river, and later Etruscan traders visited the coast. Etruscan amphorae from the 7th and 6th centuries BC have been found in Marseille, Cassis, and in hilltop "oppida" in the region.


title: Provence

text: Traders from the island of Rhodes were visiting the coast of Provence in the 7th century BC. Rhodes pottery from that century has been found in Marseille, near Martigues and Istres, and at Mont Garou and Evenos near Toulon. The traders from Rhodes gave their names to the ancient town of Rhodanousia () (now Trinquetaille, across the Rhône river from Arles), and to the main river of Provence, the Rhodanos, today known as the Rhône.


title: Provence

text: The first permanent Greek settlement was Massalia, established at modern-day Marseille in about 600 BC by colonists coming from Phocaea (now Foça, on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor). A second wave of colonists arrived in about 540 BC, when Phocaea was destroyed by the Persians.


title: Provence

text: Massalia became one of the major trading ports of the ancient world. At its height, in the 4th century BC, it had a population of about 6,000 inhabitants, living on about fifty hectares surrounded by a wall. It was governed as an aristocratic republic, by an assembly of the 600 wealthiest citizens. It had a large temple of the cult of Apollo of Delphi on a hilltop overlooking the port, and a temple of the cult of Artemis of Ephesus at the other end of the city. The Drachma coins minted in Massalia were found in all parts of Ligurian-Celtic Gaul. Traders from Massalia ventured inland deep into France on the Rivers Durance and Rhône, and established overland trade routes deep into Gaul, and to Switzerland and Burgundy, and as far north as the Baltic Sea. They exported their own products; local wine, salted pork and fish, aromatic and medicinal plants, coral and cork.


title: Provence

text: The Massalians also established a series of small colonies and trading posts along the coast; which later became towns; they founded "Citharista" (La Ciotat); "Tauroeis" (Le Brusc); "Olbia" (near Hyères); "Pergantion" (Breganson); "Caccabaria" (Cavalaire); "Athenopolis" (Saint-Tropez); "Antipolis" (Antibes); "Nikaia" (Nice), and "Monoicos" (Monaco). They established inland towns at "Glanum" (Saint-Remy) and "Mastrabala" (Saint-Blaise).


title: Provence

text: The most famous citizen of Massalia was the mathematician, astronomer and navigator Pytheas. Pytheas made mathematical instruments which allowed him to establish almost exactly the latitude of Marseille, and he was the first scientist to observe that the tides were connected with the phases of the moon. Between 330 and 320 BC he organised an expedition by ship into the Atlantic and as far north as England, and to visit Iceland, Shetland, and Norway. He was the first scientist to describe drift ice and the midnight sun. Though he hoped to establish a sea trading route for tin from Cornwall, his trip was not a commercial success, and it was not repeated. The Massalians found it cheaper and simpler to trade with Northern Europe over land routes.


title: Provence

text: In the 2nd century BC the people of Massalia appealed to Rome for help against the Ligures. Roman legions entered Provence three times; first in 181 BC the Romans suppressed Ligurian uprisings near Genoa; in 154 BC the Roman Consul Optimus defeated the Oxybii and the Deciates, who were attacking Antibes; and in 125 BC, the Romans put down an uprising of a confederation of Celtic tribes. After this battle, the Romans decided to establish permanent settlements in Provence. In 122 BC, next to the Celtic town of Entremont, the Romans built a new town, "Aquae Sextiae", later called Aix-en-Provence. In 118 BC they founded "Narbo" (Narbonne).


title: Provence

text: The Roman general Gaius Marius crushed the last serious resistance in 102 BC by defeating the Cimbri and the Teutons. He then began building roads to facilitate troop movements and commerce between Rome, Spain and Northern Europe; one from the coast inland to Apt and Tarascon, and the other along the coast from Italy to Spain, passing through Fréjus and Aix-en-Provence.


title: Provence

text: In 49 BC, Massalia had the misfortune to choose the wrong side in the power struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar. Pompey was defeated, and Massalia lost its territories and political influence. Roman veterans, in the meantime, populated two new towns, Arles and Fréjus, at the sites of older Greek settlements.


title: Provence

text: In 8 BC the Emperor Augustus built a triumphal monument at La Turbie to commemorate the pacification of the region, and he began to Romanize Provence politically and culturally. Roman engineers and architects built monuments, theatres, baths, villas, fora, arenas and aqueducts, many of which still exist. (See Architecture of Provence.) Roman towns were built at Cavaillon; Orange; Arles; Fréjus; Glanum (outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence); Carpentras; Vaison-la-Romaine; Nîmes; Vernègues; Saint-Chamas and Cimiez (above Nice). The Roman province, which was called Gallia Narbonensis, for its capital, Narbo (modern Narbonne), extended from Italy to Spain, from the Alps to the Pyrenees.


title: Provence

text: The Pax Romana in Provence lasted until the middle of the 3rd century. Germanic tribes invaded Provence in 257 and 275. At the beginning the 4th century, the court of Roman Emperor Constantine (ca. 272–337) was forced to take refuge in Arles. By the end of the 5th century, Roman power in Provence had vanished, and an age of invasions, wars, and chaos began.


title: Provence

text: There are many legends about the earliest Christians in Provence, but they are difficult to verify. It is documented that there were organised churches and bishops in the Roman towns of Provence as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries; in Arles in 254; Marseille in 314; Orange, Vaison and Apt in 314; Cavaillon, Digne, Embrun, Gap, and Fréjus at the end of the 4th century; Aix-en-Provence in 408; Carpentras, Avignon, Riez, Cimiez (today part of Nice) and Vence in 439; Antibes in 442; Toulon in 451; Senez in 406, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in 517; and Glandèves in 541.


title: Provence

text: The oldest Christian structure still surviving in Provence is the baptistery of the Fréjus Cathedral, dating from the 5th century. At about the same time, the first two monasteries in Provence were founded: Lérins Abbey, on the island of Saint-Honorat near Cannes, and Abbey of St Victor in Marseille.


title: Provence

text: Beginning in the second half of the 5th century, as Roman power waned, successive waves of Germanic tribes entered Provence: first the Visigoths (480), then the Ostrogoths, then the Burgundians, finally, the Franks in the 6th century. Arab invaders and Berber pirates came from North Africa to the Coast of Provence in the early 7th century.


title: Provence

text: During the late 7th and the early 8th centuries, Provence was formally subject to the Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty, but it was in fact ruled by its own regional nobility of Gallo-Roman stock, which ruled themselves according to Roman, not Frankish, law. Actually, the region enjoyed more prestige than the northern Franks had, but the local aristocracy feared Charles Martel's expansionist ambitions. In 737, Charles Martel headed down the Rhône Valley after subduing Burgundy. He attacked Avignon and Arles, garrisoned by the Umayyads, and came back in 739 to capture for a second time Avignon and chase the duke Maurontus to his stronghold of Marseille. The city was brought to heel and the duke had to flee to an island. The region was thereafter under the rule of Carolingian kings, descended from Charles Martel, and then was part of the empire of Charlemagne (742–814).


title: Provence

text: In 879, after the death of the Carolingian ruler Charles the Bald, Boso of Provence (also known as Boson), his brother-in-law, broke away from the Carolingian kingdom of Louis III and was elected the first ruler of an independent state of Provence.


title: Provence

text: Three different dynasties of Counts ruled Provence during the Middle Ages, and Provence became a prize in the complex rivalries between the Catalan rulers of Barcelona, the Kings of Burgundy, the German rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Angevin Kings of France.


title: Provence

text: The Bosonids (879–1112) were the descendants of the first King of Provence, Boson. His son, Louis the Blind (890–928) lost his sight trying to win the throne of Italy, after which his cousin, Hugh of Italy (died 947) became the Duke of Provence and the Count of Vienne. Hugh moved the capital of Provence from Vienne to Arles and made Provence a fief of Rudolph II of Burgundy.


title: Provence

text: In the 9th century, Arab pirates (called Saracens by the French) and then the Normans invaded Provence. The Normans pillaged the region and then left, but the Saracens built castles and began raiding towns and holding local residents for ransom. The conquering Arabs established the emirate of Fraxinet in 887. Early in 973, the Saracens captured Maieul, the abbot of the monastery at Cluny, and held him for ransom. The ransom was paid and the abbot was released, but the people of Provence, led by Count William I rose up and defeated the Saracens near their most powerful fortress (La Garde-Freinet) at the Battle of Tourtour. The Saracens who were not killed in the battle were baptised and enslaved, and the remaining Saracens in Provence fled the region.


title: Provence

text: Meanwhile, dynastic quarrels continued. A war between Rudolph III of Burgundy and his rival, German Emperor Conrad the Salic in 1032 led to Provence becoming a fiefdom of the Holy Roman Empire, which it remained until 1246.


title: Provence

text: In 1112, the last descendant of Boson, Douce I, Countess of Provence, married the Catalan Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, who as a result became Raymond Berenguer I, Count of Provence. He ruled Provence from 1112 until 1131, and his descendants, the Catalan counts, ruled in Provence until 1246. In 1125, Provence was divided; the part of Provence north and west of the Durance river went to the Count of Toulouse, while the lands between the Durance and the Mediterranean, and from the Rhône river to the Alps, belonged to the Counts of Provence. The capital of Provence was moved from Arles to Aix-en-Provence, and later to Brignoles.


title: Provence

text: Under the Catalan counts, the 12th century saw the construction of important cathedrals and abbeys in Provence, in a harmonious new style, the Romanesque, which united the Gallo-Roman style of the Rhône Valley with the Lombard style of the Alps. Aix Cathedral was built on the site of the old Roman forum, and then rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 13th and 14th centuries. The Church of St. Trophime in Arles was a landmark of Romanesque architecture, built between the 12th and the 15th centuries. A vast fortress-like monastery, Montmajour Abbey, was built on an island just north of Arles and became a major destination for medieval pilgrims.


title: Provence

text: In the 12th century, three Cistercian monasteries were built in remote parts of Provence, far from the political intrigues of the cities. Sénanque Abbey was the first, established in the Luberon between 1148 and 1178. Thoronet Abbey was founded in a remote valley near Draguignan in 1160. Silvacane Abbey, on the Durance river at La Roque-d'Anthéron, was founded in 1175.


title: Provence

text: In the 13th century, the French kings started to use marriage to extend their influence into the south of France. One son of King Louis VIII "the Lion", Alphonse, Count of Poitou, married the heiress of the Count of Toulouse, Joan. Another, Louis IX "the Saint" of France or Saint Louis (1214–1270), married Marguerite of Provence. Then, in 1246, Charles, Count of Anjou, the youngest son of Louis VIII, married the heiress of Provence, Beatrice. Provence's fortunes became tied to the Angevin Dynasty and the Kingdom of Naples.


title: Provence

text: In 1309, Pope Clement V, who was originally from Bordeaux, moved the Papal Curia to Avignon, a period known as the Avignon Papacy. From 1309 until 1377, seven Popes reigned in Avignon before the Schism between the Roman and Avignon churches, which led to the creation of rival popes in both places. After that three Antipopes reigned in Avignon until 1423, when the Papacy finally returned to Rome. Between 1334 and 1363 the old and new Papal Palaces of Avignon were built by Popes Benedict XII and Clement VI respectively; together the Palais des Papes was the largest Gothic palace in Europe.


title: Provence

text: The 14th century was a terrible time in Provence, and all of Europe: the population of Provence had been about 400,000 people; the Black Plague (1348–1350) killed fifteen thousand people in Arles, half the population of the city, and greatly reduced the population of the whole region. The defeat of the French Army during the Hundred Years' War forced the cities of Provence to build walls and towers to defend themselves against armies of former soldiers who ravaged the countryside.


title: Provence

text: The Angevin rulers of Provence also had a difficult time. An assembly of nobles, religious leaders, and town leaders of Provence was organised to resist the authority of Queen Joan I of Naples (1343–1382). She was murdered in 1382 by her cousin and heir, Charles of Durazzo, who started a new war, leading to the separation of Nice, Puget-Théniers and Barcelonnette from Provence in 1388, and their attachment to the County of Savoy. From 1388 up to 1526, the area acquired by the Savoy was known as "Terres Neuves de Provence"; after 1526 it officially took on the name County of Nice.


title: Provence

text: The 15th century saw a series of wars between the Kings of Aragon and the Counts of Provence. In 1423 the army of Alphonse of Aragon captured Marseille, and in 1443 they captured Naples, and forced its ruler, King René I of Naples, to flee. He eventually settled in one of his remaining territories, Provence.


title: Provence

text: History and legend has given René the title "Good King René of Provence", though he only lived in Provence in the last ten years of his life, from 1470 to 1480, and his political policies of territorial expansion were costly and unsuccessful. Provence benefitted from population growth and economic expansion, and René was a generous patron of the arts, sponsoring painters Nicolas Froment, Louis Bréa, and other masters. He also completed one of the finest castles in Provence at Tarascon, on the Rhône river.


title: Provence

text: When René died in 1480, his title passed to his nephew Charles du Maine. One year later, in 1481, when Charles died, the title passed to Louis XI of France. Provence was legally incorporated into the French royal domain in 1486.


title: Provence

text: Soon after Provence became part of France, it became involved in the Wars of Religion that swept the country in the 16th century. Between 1493 and 1501, many Jews were expelled from their homes and sought sanctuary in the region of Avignon, which was still under the direct rule of the Pope. In 1545, the Parliament of Aix-en-Provence ordered the destruction of the villages of Lourmarin, Mérindol, Cabriéres in the Luberon, because their inhabitants were Vaudois, of Italian Piedmontese origin, and were not considered sufficiently orthodox Catholics. Most of Provence remained strongly Catholic, though Protestants controlled the Principality of Orange, an enclave ruled by William of the House of Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands, who inherited it in 1544 and which was not incorporated into France until 1673. An army of the Catholic League laid siege to the Protestant city of Mėnerbes in the Vaucluse between 1573 and 1578. The wars did not stop until the end of the 16th century, with the consolidation of power in Provence by the Bourbon kings.


title: Provence

text: The semi-independent Parliament of Provence in Aix and some of the cities of Provence, particularly Marseille, continued to rebel against the authority of the Bourbon king. After uprisings in 1630–31 and 1648–1652, the young King Louis XIV had two large forts, fort St. Jean and Fort St. Nicholas, built at the harbour entrance to control the city's unruly population.


title: Provence

text: At the beginning of the 17th century, Cardinal Richelieu began to build a naval arsenal and dockyard at Toulon to serve as a base for a new French Mediterranean fleet. The base was greatly enlarged by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV, who also commissioned his chief military engineer Vauban to strengthen the fortifications around the city.


title: Provence

text: At the beginning of the 17th century, Provence had a population of about 450,000 people. It was predominantly rural, devoted to raising wheat, wine, and olives, with small industries for tanning, pottery, perfume-making, and ship and boat building. Provençal quilts, made from the mid-17th century onwards, were successfully exported to England, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. There was considerable commerce along the coast, and up and down the Rhône river. The cities: Marseille, Toulon, Avignon and Aix-en-Provence, saw the construction of boulevards and richly decorated private houses.


title: Provence

text: At the beginning of the 18th century, Provence suffered from the economic malaise of the end of the reign of Louis XIV. The plague struck the region between 1720 and 1722, beginning in Marseille, killing some 40,000 people. Still, by the end of the century, many artisanal industries began to flourish; making perfumes in Grasse; olive oil in Aix and the Alpilles; textiles in Orange, Avignon and Tarascon; and faience pottery in Marseille, Apt, Aubagne, and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. Many immigrants arrived from Liguria and the Piedmont in Italy. By the end of the 18th century, Marseille had a population of 120,000 people, making it the third largest city in France.


title: Provence

text: Most of Provence, with the exception of Marseille, Aix and Avignon, was rural, conservative and largely royalist, but it produced some memorable figures in the French Revolution; Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau from Aix, who tried to moderate the Revolution and turn France into a constitutional monarchy like England; the Marquis de Sade from Lacoste in the Luberon, who was a Deputy from the far left in the National Assembly; Charles Barbaroux from Marseille, who sent a battalion of volunteers to Paris to fight in the French Revolutionary Army; and Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836), an abbé, essayist and political leader, who was one of the chief theorists of the French Revolution, French Consulate, and First French Empire, and who, in 1799, was the instigator of the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, which brought Napoleon to power.


title: Provence

text: Volunteers from Provence inspired the name of the most memorable song of the period, "La Marseillaise". Though the song was originally written by a citizen of Strasbourg, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792, and it was originally a war song for the revolutionary Army of the Rhine, it became famous when it was sung on the streets of Paris by volunteers from Marseille, who had heard it when it was sung in Marseille by a young volunteer from Montpellier named François Mireur. It became the most popular song of the Revolution, and in 1879 became the national anthem of France.


title: Provence

text: The Revolution was as violent and bloody in Provence as it was in other parts of France. On 30 April 1790, Fort Saint-Nicolas in Marseille was besieged, and many of the soldiers inside were massacred. On 17 October 1791, a massacre of royalists and religious figures took place in the ice storage rooms ("glacières") of the prison of the Palace of the Popes in Avignon.


title: Provence

text: When the radical Montagnards seized power from the Girondins in May 1793, a real counter-revolution broke out in Avignon, Marseille and Toulon. A revolutionary army under General Carteaux recaptured Marseille in August 1793 and renamed it "City without a Name" ("Ville sans Nom".) In Toulon, the opponents of the Revolution handed the city to a British and Spanish fleet on 28 August 1793. A Revolutionary Army laid siege to the British positions for four months (see the Siege of Toulon) and finally, the enterprise of the young commander of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the British and drove them out in December 1793. About 15,000 royalists escaped with the British fleet, but five to eight hundred of the 7,000 who remained were shot on the Champ de Mars, and Toulon was renamed "Port la Montagne".


title: Provence

text: The fall of the Montagnards in July 1794 was followed by a new White Terror aimed at the revolutionaries. Calm was not restored until the rise of the Directory to power in 1795.


title: Provence

text: Napoleon restored the belongings and power of the families of the Ancien Régime in Provence. The British fleet of Admiral Horatio Nelson blockaded Toulon, and almost all maritime commerce was stopped, causing hardship and poverty. When Napoleon was defeated, his fall was celebrated in Provence. When he escaped from Elba on 1 March 1815, and landed at Golfe-Juan, he detoured to avoid the cities of Provence, which were hostile to him, and therefore directed his small force directly to the northeast of it.


title: Provence

text: Provence enjoyed prosperity in the 19th century; the ports of Marseille and Toulon connected Provence with the expanding French Empire in North Africa and the Orient, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.


title: Provence

text: In April–July 1859, Napoleon III made a secret agreement with Cavour, Prime Minister of Piedmont, for France to assist in expelling Austria from the Italian Peninsula and bringing about a united Italy, in exchange for Piedmont ceding Savoy and the Nice region to France. He went to war with Austria in 1859 and won a victory at Solferino, which resulted in Austria ceding Lombardy to France. France immediately ceded Lombardy to Piedmont, and, in return, Napoleon received Savoy and Nice in 1860, and Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Menton in 1861.


title: Provence

text: The railroad connected Paris with Marseille (1848) and then with Toulon and Nice (1864). Nice, Antibes and Hyères became popular winter resorts for European royalty, including Queen Victoria. Under Napoleon III, Marseille grew to a population of 250,000, including a very large Italian community. Toulon had a population of 80,000. The large cities like Marseille and Toulon saw the building of churches, opera houses, grand boulevards, and parks.


title: Provence

text: After the fall of Louis Napoleon following the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, barricades went up in the streets of Marseille (23 March 1871) and the Communards, led by Gaston Cremieux and following the lead of the Paris Commune, took control of the city. The Commune was crushed by the army and Cremieux was executed on 30 November 1871. Though Provence was generally conservative, it often elected reformist leaders; Prime Minister Léon Gambetta was the son of a Marseille grocer, and future prime minister Georges Clemenceau was elected deputy of Var in 1885.


title: Provence

text: The second half of the 19th century saw a revival of the Provençal language and culture, particularly traditional rural values. driven by a movement of writers and poets called the Félibrige, led by poet Frédéric Mistral. Mistral achieved literary success with his poem Mirèio ("Mireille" in French); he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1904.


title: Provence

text: Between World War I and World War II, Provence was bitterly divided between the more conservative rural areas and the more radical big cities. There were widespread strikes in Marseille in 1919, and riots in Toulon in 1935.


title: Provence

text: After the defeat of France by Germany in June 1940, France was divided into an occupied zone and unoccupied zone, with Provence in the unoccupied zone. Parts of eastern Provence were occupied by Italian soldiers. Collaboration and passive resistance gradually gave way to more active resistance, particularly after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and the Communist Party became active in the resistance. Jean Moulin, the deputy of Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free France resistance movement, was parachuted into Eygalières, in the Bouches-du-Rhône on 2 January 1942 to unite the diverse resistance movements in all of France against the Germans.


title: Provence

text: In November 1942, following Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch), the Germans occupied all of Provence (Operation Attila) and then headed for Toulon (Case Anton). The French fleet at Toulon sabotaged its own ships to keep them from falling into German hands.


title: Provence

text: The Germans began a systematic rounding-up of French Jews and refugees from Nice and Marseille. Many thousands were taken to concentration camps, and few survived. A large quarter around the port of Marseille was emptied of inhabitants and dynamited, so it would not serve as a base for the resistance. Nonetheless, the resistance grew stronger; the leader of the pro-German militia, the Milice, in Marseille was assassinated in April 1943.


title: Provence

text: On 15 August 1944, two months after the Allied landings in Normandy (Operation Overlord), the Seventh United States Army under General Alexander Patch, with a Free French corps under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, landed on the coast of Var between St. Raphael and Cavalaire (Operation Dragoon). The American forces moved north toward Manosque, Sisteron and Gap, while the French First Armored Division under General Vigier liberated Brignoles, Salon, Arles, and Avignon. The Germans in Toulon resisted until 27 August, and Marseille was not liberated until 25 August.


title: Provence

text: After the end of the war, Provence faced an enormous task of reconstruction, particularly of the ports and railroads destroyed during the war. As part of this effort, the first modern concrete apartment block, the Unité d'habitation of Corbusier, was built in Marseille in 1947–52. In 1962, Provence absorbed a large number of French citizens who left Algeria after its independence. Since that time, large North African communities settled in and around the big cities, particularly Marseille and Toulon.


title: Provence

text: In the 1940s, Provence underwent a cultural renewal, with the founding of the Avignon Festival of theatre (1947), the reopening of the Cannes Film Festival (begun in 1939), and many other major events. With the building of new highways, particularly the Paris Marseille autoroute which opened in 1970, Provence became destination for mass tourism from all over Europe. Many Europeans, particularly from Britain, bought summer houses in Provence. The arrival of the TGV high-speed trains shortened the trip from Paris to Marseille to less than four hours.


title: Provence

text: In recent years, residents of Provence have struggled to reconcile economic development and population growth with their desire to preserve the region's unique landscape and culture.


title: Provence

text: The original Roman province was called Gallia Transalpina, then Gallia Narbonensis, or simply "Provincia Nostra" ('Our Province') or "Provincia". It extended from the Alps to the Pyrenees and north to the Vaucluse, with its capital in Narbo Martius (present-day Narbonne).


title: Provence

text: In the 15th century, the County of Provence was bordered by the river Var on the east and the Rhône to the west, with the Mediterranean to the south, and a northern border that roughly followed the Durance. Bordering it on the northwest were two territories that had earlier formed part of Provence, i.e., the Comtat Venaissin, centered on Avignon which was ruled by the Pope from the 13th century until the French Revolution, and, just north of this, the Principality of Orange, that through inheritance became a possession of William the Silent, who became the founder of the present ruling house of the Netherlands, the House of Orange-Nassau. The principality was independent between the 12th century and 1673 when it was occupied and then annexed by Louis XIV during one of his wars with its Prince, Dutch stadtholder William III, the future King of England. At the end of the 14th century, another piece of Provence along the Italian border, including Nice and the lower Alps, was detached from Provence and attached to the lands of the Duke of Savoy. The lower Alps were re-attached to France after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, but Nice did not return to France until 1860, during the reign of Napoleon III.


title: Provence

text: The administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur was created in 1982. It included Provence, plus the territory of the Comtat Venaissin around Avignon, and the Principality of Orange, the eastern portion of the Dauphiné, and the former County of Nice.


title: Provence

text: The Rhône river, on the western border of Provence, is one of the major rivers of France, and has been a highway of commerce and communications between inland France and the Mediterranean for centuries. It rises as the effluent of the Rhône Glacier in Valais, Switzerland, in the Saint-Gotthard massif, at an altitude of 1753 m. It is joined by the river Saône at Lyon. Along the Rhône Valley, it is joined on the right bank by the rivers Eyrieux, Ardèche, Cèze and Gardon (or Gard), on the left Alps bank by rivers Isère, Drôme, Ouvèze and Durance. At Arles, the Rhône divides itself in two arms, forming the Camargue delta, with all branches flowing into the Mediterranean Sea. One arm is called the "Grand Rhône"; the other one is the "Petit Rhône".


title: Provence

text: The Durance river, a tributary of the Rhône, has its source in the Alps near Briançon. It flows south-west through Embrun, Sisteron, Manosque, Cavaillon, and Avignon, where it meets the Rhône.


title: Provence

text: The Verdon River is a tributary of the Durance, rising at an altitude of 2,400 metres in the southwestern Alps near Barcelonette, and flowing southwest for 175 kilometres through the departments of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Var before it reaches the Durance at near Vinon-sur-Verdon, south of Manosque. The Verdon is best known for its canyon, the Verdon Gorge. This limestone canyon, also called the 'Grand Canyon of Verdon', 20 kilometres in length and more than 300 metres deep, is a popular climbing and sight-seeing area.


title: Provence

text: The Var River rises near the Col de la Cayolle (2,326 m/7,631 ft) in the Maritime Alps and flows generally southeast for into the Mediterranean between Nice and Saint-Laurent-du-Var. Before Nice was returned to France in 1860, the Var marked the eastern border of France along the Mediterranean. The Var is the unique case in France of a river giving a name to a department, but not flowing through that department (due to subsequent adjustments to the department's boundaries).


title: Provence

text: With an area of over 930 km (360 mi), Camargue is western Europe's largest river delta (technically an island, as it is wholly surrounded by water). It is a vast plain comprising large brine lagoons or "étangs", cut off from the sea by sandbars and encircled by reed-covered marshes which are in turn surrounded by a large cultivated area. It is home to more than 400 species of birds, the brine ponds providing one of the few European habitats for the greater flamingo.


title: Provence

text: By considering the Maritime Alps, along the border with Italy, as a part of the cultural Provence, they constitute the highest elevations of the region (the Punta dell'Argentera has an elevation of 3,297 m). They form the border between the French "département" Alpes-Maritimes and the Italian province of Cuneo. Mercantour National Park is located in the Maritime Alps. On the other hand, if the "département" Hautes Alpes is also considered as part of the modern Provence, then the alpin Écrins mountains represent the highest elevations of the region with the Barre des Écrins culminating at 4102m.


title: Provence

text: Outside of the Maritime Alps, Mont Ventoux (Occitan: Ventor in classical norm or Ventour in Mistralian norm), at , is the highest peak in Provence. It is located some 20 km north-east of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north side, the mountain borders the Drôme département. It is nicknamed the "Giant of Provence", or "The Bald Mountain". Although geologically part of the Alps, is often considered to be separate from them, due to the lack of mountains of a similar height nearby. It stands alone to the west of the Luberon range, and just to the east of the Dentelles de Montmirail, its foothills. The top of the mountain is bare limestone without vegetation or trees. The white limestone on the mountain's barren peak means it appears from a distance to be snow-capped all year round (its snow cover actually lasts from December to April).


title: Provence

text: The Alpilles are a chain of small mountains located about south of Avignon. Although they are not particularly high – only some at their highest point – the Alpilles stand out since they rise abruptly from the plain of the Rhône valley. The range is about 25 km long by about 8 to 10 km wide, running in an east–west direction between the Rhône and Durance rivers. The landscape of the Alpilles is one of arid limestone peaks separated by dry valleys.


title: Provence

text: Montagne Sainte-Victoire is probably the best-known mountain in Provence, thanks to the painter Paul Cézanne, who could see it from his home, and painted it frequently.


title: Provence

text: It is a limestone mountain ridge which extends over 18 kilometres between the départements of Bouches-du-Rhône and Var. Its highest point is the "Pic des mouches" at 1,011 m.


title: Provence

text: The Massif des Maures (Moor Mountains) is a small chain of mountains that lies along the coast of the Mediterranean in the department of Var, between Hyères et Fréjus. Its highest point is the signal de la Sauvette, 780 metres high. The name is a souvenir of the Moors ("Maures" in Old French), Arabs and Berbers from North Africa, who settled on the coast of Provence in the 9th and 10th centuries. The Massif des Maures extends about sixty kilometres along the coast, and reaches inland about thirty kilometres. On the north it is bordered by a depression which is followed by the "routes nationales" 97 and 7, and the railroad line between Toulon and Nice. On the south it ends abruptly at the Mediterranean, forming a broken and abrupt coastline.


title: Provence

text: The peninsula of Saint-Tropez is part of the Massif des Maures, along with the Giens Peninsula and the islands offshore of Hyères; Porquerolles, Port-Cros, and île du Levant. Cape Sicié, west of Toulon, as well as the Massif de Tanneron, belong geologically to the Massif des Maures.


title: Provence

text: The Calanques form a dramatic feature of the Provence coast, a 20-km long series of narrow inlets in the cliffs of the coastline between Marseille on the west and Cassis on the east. The best known examples of this formation can be found in the Massif des Calanques. The highest peak in the massif is Mont Puget, 565 metres high.


title: Provence

text: The best known calanques of the Massif des Calanques include the Calanque de Sormiou, the Calanque de Morgiou, the Calanque d'En-Vau, the Calanque de Port-Pin and the Calanque de Sugiton.


title: Provence

text: The calanques are remains of ancient river mouths formed mostly during Tertiary. Later, during Quaternary glaciation, as glaciers swept by, they further deepened those valleys which would eventually (at the end of the last glaciation) be invaded with sea and become calanques.


title: Provence

text: The Cosquer cave is an underwater grotto in the Calanque de Morgiou, underwater, that was inhabited during Paleolithic era, when the sea level was much lower than today. Its walls are covered with paintings and engravings dating back to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC, depicting animals such as bison, ibex, and horses, as well as sea mammals such as seals, and at least one bird, the auk.


title: Provence

text: The garrigue is the typical landscape of Provence; it is a type of low, soft-leaved scrubland or chaparral found on limestone soils around the Mediterranean Basin, generally near the seacoast, where the climate is moderate, but where there are annual summer drought conditions. Juniper and stunted holm oaks are the typical trees; aromatic lime-tolerant shrubs such as lavender, sage, rosemary, wild thyme and "Artemisia" are common garrigue plants. The open landscape of the garrigue is punctuated by dense thickets of Kermes oak.


title: Provence

text: Most of Provence has a Mediterranean climate, characterised by hot, dry summers, mild winters, little snow, and abundant sunshine. Within Provence there are micro-climates and local variations, ranging from the Alpine climate inland from Nice to the continental climate in the northern Vaucluse. The winds of Provence are an important feature of the climate, particularly the mistral, a cold, dry wind which, especially in the winter, blows down the Rhône Valley to the Bouches-du-Rhône and the Var Departments, and often reaches over one hundred kilometres an hour.


title: Provence

text: Marseille, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, has an average of 59 days of rain a year, though when it does rain the rain is often torrential; the average annual rainfall is 544.4 mm. It snows an average of 2.3 days a year, and the snow rarely remains long. Marseille has an average of 2835.5 hours of sunshine a year. The average minimum temperature in January is 2.3 °C., and the average maximum temperature in July is 29.3 °C. The mistral blows an average of one hundred days a year.


title: Provence

text: Toulon and Var, which includes St. Tropez and Hyères, have a climate slightly warmer, dryer and sunnier than Nice and the Alpes-Maritime, but also less sheltered from the wind. Toulon has an average of 2899.3 hours of sunshine a year, making it the sunniest city in metropolitan France, The average maximum daily temperature in August is 29.1 °C., and the average daily minimum temperature in January is 5.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 665 mm, with the most rain from October to November. Strong winds blow an average of 118 days a year in Toulon, compared with 76 days at Fréjus further east. The strongest Mistral wind recorded in Toulon was 130 kilometres an hour.


title: Provence

text: Nice and the Alpes-Maritimes department are sheltered by the Alps, and are the most protected part of the Mediterranean coast. The winds in this department are usually gentle, blowing from the sea to the land, though sometimes the mistral blows strongly from the northwest, or, turned by the mountains, from the east. In 1956, a mistral wind from the northwest reached the speed of 180 kilometres an hour at Nice airport. Sometimes in summer the sirocco brings high temperatures and reddish desert sand from Africa (see Winds of Provence).


title: Provence

text: Rainfall is infrequent, 63 days a year, but can be torrential, particularly in September, when storms and rain are caused by the difference between the colder air inland and the warm Mediterranean water temperature (20–24 degrees C.). The average annual rainfall in Nice is 767 mm, more than in Paris, but concentrated in fewer days.


title: Provence

text: Snow is extremely rare, usually falling once every ten years. 1956 was a very exceptional year, when 20 centimetres of snow blanketed the coast. In January 1985 the coast between Cannes and Menton received 30 to 40 centimetres of snow. In the mountains, the snow is present from November to May.


title: Provence

text: Nice has an annual average of 2694 hours of sunshine. The average maximum daily temperature in Nice in August is 28 °C., and the average minimum daily temperature in January is 6 °C.


title: Provence

text: The department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence has a Mediterranean climate in the lower valleys under one thousand metres in altitude and an alpine climate in the high valleys, such as the valleys of the Blanche, the Haut Verdon and the Ubaye, which are over 2500 metres high. The alpine climate in the higher mountains is moderated by the warmer air from the Mediterranean.


title: Provence

text: Haute-Provence has unusually high summer temperatures for its altitude and latitude (44 degrees north). The average summer temperature is 22 to 23 °C. at an altitude of 400 metres, and 18 to 19 °C. at the altitude of 1000 metres; and the winter average temperature is 4 to 5 °C. at 400 metres and 0 C. at 1000 metres. The lower valleys have 50 days of freezing temperatures a year, more in the higher valleys. Sometimes the temperatures in the high valleys can reach −30 °C. Because of this combination of high mountains and Mediterranean air, it is not unusual that the region frequently has some of the lowest winter temperatures and some of the hottest summer temperatures in France.


title: Provence

text: Rainfall in Haute-Provence is infrequent – 60 to 80 days a year – but can be torrential; 650 to 900 mm. a year in the foothills and plateaus of the southwest, and in the valley of the Ubaye; and 900 to 1500 mm. in the mountains. Most rainfall comes in the autumn, in brief and intense storms; from mid-June to mid-August, rain falls during brief but violent thunderstorms. Thunder can be heard 30 to 40 days a year.


title: Provence

text: Snow falls in the mountains from November to May, and in midwinter can be found down to altitude of 1000–1200 metres on the shady side of the mountains and 1300 to 1600 metres on the sunny side. Snowfalls are usually fairly light, and melt rapidly.


title: Provence

text: The mistral, a wind blowing from the north and the northwest, is a feature of the climate in the western part of the department, bringing clear and dry weather. The eastern part of the department is more protected from the mistral. A southerly wind known as the marin brings warm air, clouds and rain.


title: Provence

text: Haute-Provence is one of the sunniest regions of France, with an average of between 2,550 and 2,650 hours of sunshine annually in the north of the department, and 2,700 to 2,800 hours in the southwest. The clear nights and sunny days cause a sharp difference between nighttime and daytime temperatures. Because of the clear nights, the region is home of important observatories, such as the Observatory of Haute-Provence in Saint-Michel-Observatoire near Forcalquier.


title: Provence

text: Vaucluse is the meeting point of three of the four different climatic zones of France; it has a Mediterranean climate in the south, an alpine climate in the northeast, around the mountains of Vaucluse and the massif of the Baronnies; and a continental climate in the northwest. The close proximity of these three different climates tends to moderate all of them, and the Mediterranean climate usually prevails.


title: Provence

text: Orange in the Vaucluse has 2595 hours of sunshine a year. It rains an average of 80 days a year, for a total of 693.4 mm a year. The maximum average temperature in July is 29.6 °C., and the average minimum temperature in January is 1.3 °C. There are an average of 110 days of strong winds a year.


title: Provence

text: Artists have been painting in Provence since prehistoric times; paintings of bisons, seals, auks and horses dating to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC were found in the Cosquer Cave near Marseille.


title: Provence

text: The 14th-century wooden ceiling of the cloister of Fréjus Cathedral has a remarkable series of paintings of biblical scenes, fantastic animals, and scenes from daily life, painted between 1350 and 1360. They include paintings of a fallen angel with the wings of a bat, a demon with the tail of a serpent, angels playing instruments, a tiger, an elephant, an ostrich, domestic and wild animals, a mermaid, a dragon, a centaur, a butcher, a knight, and a juggler.


title: Provence

text: Nicolas Froment (1435–1486) was the most important painter of Provence during the Renaissance, best known for his triptych of the Burning Bush (c. 1476), commissioned by King René I of Naples. The painting shows a combination of Moses, the Burning Bush, and the Virgin Mary "who gave birth but remained a virgin", just as the bush of Moses "-burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed". This is the explication according to a plaque in the cathedral. A more likely reason for the juxtaposition is that in 1400 a shepherd, or shepherds, discovered a miraculous statue of the Virgin and Child inside another burning bush (thorn bush specifically), in the village of L'Epine in the present day department of La Marne. The site and statue were later visited by the "Bon Roi René".


title: Provence

text: The wings of the triptych show King René with Mary Magdalene, St. Anthony and St. Maurice on one side, and Queen Jeanne de Laval, with Saint Catherine, John the Evangelist, and Saint Nicholas on the other.


title: Provence

text: Louis Bréa (1450–1523) was a 15th-century painter, born in Nice, whose work is found in churches from Genoa to Antibes. His "Retable of Saint-Nicholas" (1500) is found in Monaco, and his "Retable de Notre-Dame-de-Rosaire" (1515) is found in Antibes.


title: Provence

text: Pierre Paul Puget (1620–1694), born in Marseille, was a painter of portraits and religious scenes, but was better known for his sculptures, found in Toulon Cathedral, outside the city hall of Toulon, and in the Louvre. There is a mountain named for him near Marseille, and a square in Toulon.


title: Provence

text: In the 19th and 20th centuries, many of the most famous painters in the world converged on Provence, drawn by the climate and the clarity of the light. The special quality of the light is partly a result of the Mistral (wind), which removes dust from the atmosphere, greatly increasing visibility.