Marseille

Marseille Marselha
Panorama of Marseille
Marseille
Administration
Country	France
Region	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Department	Bouches-du-Rhône
Arrondissement	Marseille
Intercommunality	Urban Community of Marseille Provence Métropole
Mayor	Jean-Claude Gaudin (UMP) (since 1995)
Statistics
Land area1	240.62 km2 (92.90 sq mi)
Population2	851,420  (2008)
- Ranking	2nd after Paris
- Density	3,538 /km2 (9,160 /sq mi)
Urban area	90 km2 (35 sq mi) (2012)
- Population	1,720,000 (2010)
Metro area	2,830.2 km2 (1,092.7 sq mi) (1999)
- Population	1,604,550 (2007)
INSEE/Postal code	13055/ 13001-13016
Dialling code	0491 or 0496
Website	marseille.fr
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Marseille is a city in the south of France in the Bouches-du-Rhône department. About 1.7 million people live in the metropolitan area, and about 850,000 in the city itself. This makes it the second largest city in France by number of people. It is the third largest by size. Marseille is all in the south, just at the Mediterranean sea. It has the biggest commercial port in France. The port is one of the most important ones in the Mediterranean.

Although part of the region of Provence, Marseilles has a soul of its own. Founded in 600 B.C. by the Greek sailors of Phocaea, this city is the oldest in France and probably the most complex.

The city was started around 600 BC by Greek sailors from (modern day) Foça. This was a Greek colony in Asia Minor. It is in what is now Turkey.

Marseille has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa in the Koeppen climate classification).

Education

• École pour l'informatique et les nouvelles technologies