The Tête de Chien (Dog's Head) is a 550 m (1,804 ft) high rock promontory near the village of

La Turbie La Turbie (; oc, A Torbia; in Italian "Turbia" from ''tropea'', Latin for trophy) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. History La Turbie was famous in Roman times for the large monument, the Trophy of Augus ...

in the Alpes-Maritimes department of France. It overlooks 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 ...

, and is the highest point on the Grande Corniche road. The American diplomat Samuel S. Cox, in his 1870 travel book ''Search for Winter Sunbeams in the Riviera, Corsica, Algiers and Spain'' wrote that the Tête de Chien more resembled a tortoise than a dog's head, and believed that 'Tête de Chien' was a corruption of 'Tête de Camp', as it was where

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

stationed his troops after the conquest of

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

. Vere Herbert, the heroine of

Ouida Ouida (; 1 January 1839 – 25 January 1908) was the pseudonym of the English novelist Maria Louise Ramé (although she preferred to be known as Marie Louise de la Ramée). During her career, Ouida wrote more than 40 novels, as well as s ...

's 1880 novel ''Moths'' is described as living under the Tête de Chien, "...within a few miles of the brilliant Hell onaco" In 1897,

Gustave Saige Gustave Saige (1838-1905) was a French archivist. He was the archivist of the Prince's Palace of Monaco from 1881 to 1905. Early life Gustave Saige was born on 20 August 1838 in Paris, France. He graduated from the École Nationale des Chartes in ...

described it as "a vertical

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...

of circular shape which gives it a characteristic appearance; it's the Dog's Head." In 1944, Leopold Bohm, a German defence company commander, was stationed on the Tête de Chien and saw a low flying airplane crash into the sea, which had been pursued by two other planes. Bohm's observation was on the day of the disappearance of the aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and it has been speculated that Bohm saw the final flight of Saint-Exupéry. PW0018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tete De Chien French Riviera Mountains of Alpes-Maritimes Landforms of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Landforms of Monaco Rock formations of Europe