Monaco Ville from Tête de Chien - panoramio

The Rock of Monaco (french: Rocher de Monaco) is a tall

monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often ma ...

on the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

coast of the

Principality of Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Liguria ...

. It overlooks the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

and the

Port Hercules Port Hercules (french: Port Hercule) is the only deep-water port in Monaco. The port has been in use since ancient times. The modern port was completed in 1926, and underwent substantial improvements in the 1970s. It covers almost , enough to pro ...

History

The Rock has been a coveted possession from the beginning of the ancient

Massilia Massalia (Greek: Μασσαλία; Latin: Massilia; modern Marseille) was an ancient Greek colony founded ca. 600 BC on the Mediterranean coast of present-day France, east of the river Rhône, by Ionian Greek settlers from Phocaea, in Western An ...

n colony of Monoïkos (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Μόνοικος), named for the Ligurian tribes who occupied the area and vied for control of it; even earlier, it was a shelter for primitive populations. The Rock of

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

was also the first conquest of the Grimaldi dynasty, the rulers of the country for more than 700 years, founded when the

Guelf The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, ri ...

Francesco Grimaldi disguised himself as a Franciscan friar in order to gain entry to the city and open the gates for his soldiers.

Today

Today, the Rock is in the oldest of Monaco's four quarters,

Monaco-Ville Monaco City (french: Monaco-Ville) is the southcentral ward in the Principality of Monaco. Located on a headland that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, it is nicknamed The Rock (french: Le Rocher). The name "Monaco City" is misleading: it is no ...

, which is also the location of Old Town, the oldest part of the city, not far from the Prince's Palace (french: Le Palais Princier), home of the current

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...

Albert II and the

princely family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papa ...

, the

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

and the

Oceanographic Museum of Monaco The Oceanographic Museum (''Musée océanographique'') is a museum of marine sciences in Monaco-Ville, Monaco. This building is part of the Institut océanographique, which is committed to sharing its knowledge of the oceans. History Th ...

. The Rock of Monaco is a popular attraction where tourists view the palace and the

changing of the guards Guard mounting, changing the guard, or the changing of the guard, is a formal ceremony in which sentries performing ceremonial guard duties at important institutions are relieved by a new batch of sentries. The ceremonies are often elaborate an ...

Image gallery

Image:Monacoc1890.jpg, The Rock in 1890 File:Monaco003.jpg, Monaco-Ville and harbour of Fontvieille today

References

Geography of Monaco

Mountains of Monaco {{Monaco-stub