TOULON, a great sea-port and naval arsenal of France, in the dep. of Var, stands on the shore of the Mediterranean, 37 in. s.e. of Marseilles, with which it is connected by railway. It stands at the head of a deeply penetrating inlet or gulf, rises in the form of an amphitheater toward the n., where its ramparts extend to the foot of a chain of lofty elevations, in part clothed with beautiful forests. The port is divided into two parts, the old and the new; the former, on the e., appropriated to merchant vessels, and bor dered by a quay; the latter, ou the w., surrounded by the dockyard, slips, arsenal, store houses, cannon-foundry, etc. Numerous forts defend the town on the laud-side; and the mouth of the harbor, and the hills commanding it, are studded with forts and redoubts; while moles, hollow and bomb proof, and formed externally into batteries, level with the water's edge, separate the roadstead from the old and new ports. Belonging to the arsenal, which is perhaps the finest in France, the chief objects of attraction are the sail yard, the armory, the museum, the magazine, and the basin for the repair of ships. The fortifications of the town have been greatly extended since the conquest of Algeria, Toulon having become the chief port of communication with Africa. The population
has also greatly increased, and two new suburbs have been constructed. The town is surrounded by a double rampart, and by a wide and deep fosse. The streets are straight and wide; and, on the whole, the town is both agreeable and healthy. The town is the Plymouth of France; and its industry consists, for the most part, of those manufactures to which its position as a great naval arsenal gives rise. Pop. '76, 61,382.
Toulon was destroyed by the Saracens in 889, and again by the Saracens about the close of the 12th century. It is only at the end of the 16th c. that Toulon comes to be important as a naval and military stronghold. It was taken by the English and Spaniards in 1793; but the allies were obliged to evacuate the town in December•of the same year, after being fiercely attacked by the republicans, whose guns were commanded by Napo leon—then a simple officer of artillery—who here evinced for the first time his genius and self-reliance.