Monaco

Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, Monaco and Munegu Principatu of Munegu is one and a municipality of the same name occupy the same land that the state itself country of Western Europe (that making it a city-state). It is located along the Mediterranean Sea, along the French Riviera, about twenty kilometers east of Nice. Surrounded by the French cities of Cap d'Ail, Beausoleil, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and La Turbie, but with direct access to the sea and territorial waters reaching international waters, Monaco is not an enclave in french territory as San Marino in Italy, but is still considered "enclosed".

Dependent of the Republic of Genoa, the Grimaldis were a patrician families, relatively autonomous since 1297, it became a constitutional monarchy in 1911 and directed since 2005 by the Sovereign Prince Albert II of Monaco, the Grimaldi dynasty is one of the oldest ruling dynasties of the world (if we stick to the traditional definition of agnatic ruling house, the Principality of Monaco is passed to the family of Goyons Matignon in 1731 and then to the family of Polignac 1949).

It was ranked in 2005 an area of ​​1,974 km²5 and now holds 2.02 km²6, making it the second smallest independent state in the world (the first being the Vatican). In the last census of 2008, there were 31,109 inhabitants7 Monaco. This total figure is revised at the end of each year by a partial estimate on census data on immigration and nationality acquisitions, and December 31, 2011 the total official population was updated in 3714 36 people on its 202 hectares; with 18,005 inhabitants per km2, it is the most densely populated countries in the world.

Almost entirely urbanized, the Principality of Monaco enjoys a particularly mild Mediterranean climate and has many luxury hotel facilities. The Grand Prix of Monaco Formula 1 takes place there and attractions are present throughout the year including the Casino de Monte-Carlo, the Oceanographic Museum and the royal palace.

The first traces of life in Monaco back to about 300,000 years BC. AD .. The protection brought by the Rock of Monaco and the natural harbor, sheltered attracted many peoples: Ligurians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens. The modern history of Monaco has been strongly marked by the Grimaldi family that reigns almost without interruption over the principality since the thirteenth century.

The territory corresponding to Monaco was occupied by the first inhabitants of the region from the late Lower Paleolithic, there are about 300,000 years. Animal bones that served food to these prehistoric men were found in the cave of the Observatory, located in the Garden exotique8. Excavations have also revealed the presence of a basin in the cave at the Centre and in the cave of Prince9. The human presence is attested in the Middle Paleolithic (- 50,000 years) and Upper Paleolithic (from - 30 000 years). The first works of art (prints, sculptures Paleolithic Venus, etc.) appear during this period. Burials, individual or collective, are becoming more numerous. The neighboring site Balzi Rossi Grimaldi has delivered several, including a double burial containing a woman and a teenager.

According to the historian Diodorus and Strabo the geographer, the first sedentary inhabitants were Ligurians, who emigrated from the city of Genoa in Italy. However, the ancient Ligurian language, following the Indo-European languages ​​[ref. needed], was related neither to the Italian dialect spoken today by the people of Liguria, nor to the modern Monegasque. This advance in Monaco have been the sea access Ligurian population located inland.

OM Marseille (Massalia then) founded the colony of Monoïkos the sixth century BC. AD where now stands Monaco. Monoïkos was associated with Hercules, worshiped under the name Hercules Monoecus. Based on the work of Hercules as well as Diodorus and Strabo, the Greek and the Ligurian reported that Hercules had passed through the area. The Massaliotes could have annexed a Phoenician where a temple was dedicated to Melkart god who was usually equated with Hercules / Héraclès10.

After the Gallic Wars, Monoecus where Julius Caesar was arrested on his way to Greece, came under Roman control in the province of Narbonne Gaul. In The Aeneid (VI, 830), the poet Virgil had already mentioned the Rock of Monaco. Maurus Servius Honoratus The grammarian says that the term derives from Monaco this origin: "Dictus Monoecus autem vel quod omnibus pulsis Illic habitavit solus" ("Hercules dismissed everyone and lived there alone") and "vel quod in eius templo numquam aliquis deorum simul colitur "(" in his temple no other god is worshiped at the same time "). The name of the port of Monaco is also mentioned in The Natural History of Pliny the Elder (III.V11) and in Tacitus Historiae (III.XLII) when Valens support Vitellius was forced to stop over "Fabius Valens e sinu Pisano segnitia husbands aut adversante portum Herculis Monoeci depellitur vento "(" Fabius Valens, just off the Gulf of Pisa, was, in a calm sea or a headwind, forced [to release] at Port Hercules Monoecus ").