Arles
Arles has 53 thousand residents1 and is located on the Grand Rhône, a distributary of the Rhône, in the Bouches-du-Rhône (Mouths of the Rhône) Department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (Provence-Alps-Azure Coast) Region of France. Monuments from the Roman era, when the city was known as Arelate, include: an arena that could seat 20,000; a theatre with 33 rows of seats and the cryptoporticus (subterranean galleries), date from the first century BCE. The Baths of Constantine and the necropolis of Les Alyscamps were added in the fourth century CE. Still later came the Romanesque Church of St-Trophine, and the topping of the necropolis by the St-Honorat priory, a stop for pilgims on their way to Santiago de Compostela. The ancient and Romanesque monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site.2
External references
The Roman arena at Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône (Mouths of the Rhône) Department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (Provence-Alps-Azure Coast) Region, France
Footnotes
1. Figure for 2010 in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_communes_in_France_with_over_20,000_inhabitants, accessed 2/8/2015.
2. Information about the monuments comes from UNESCO, World Heritage Sites (Firefly Books, 2010). Arles is also part of another World Heritage Site: the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.
