Toliara (also known as ''Toliary'', ; formerly ''Tuléar'') is a city in southern
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
. It is the capital of the
Atsimo-Andrefana
Atsimo-Andrefana (South West) is a region of Madagascar. It borders Menabe in north, Amoron'i Mania and Haute Matsiatra in northeast, Ihorombe and Anosy in east and Androy in southeast. The capital is Toliara and the population was 1,799,088 i ...
region, located 936 km southwest of the national capital
Antananarivo
Antananarivo (Malagasy language, Malagasy: ; French language, French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known ...
.
The current spelling of the name was adopted in the 1970s, reflecting the
orthography
An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis.
Most national ...
of the
Malagasy language
Malagasy ( ; ; Sorabe: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar. The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is one of the official languages of Madagascar, alongside French language, F ...
. Many geographic place names, assigned French spellings during the colonial period, were altered following Malagasy independence in 1960.
The city has a population of 168,758 in 2018. As a port town it acts as a major import/export hub for commodities such as
sisal
Sisal (, ; ''Agave sisalana'') is a species of flowering plant native to southern Mexico, but widely cultivated and naturalized in many other countries. It yields a stiff fibre used in making rope and various other products. The sisal fiber is ...
,
soap
Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...
,
hemp
Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest ...
,
cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
,
rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
and
peanut
The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...
s.
History
In the 17th century, French buccaneers landed in the bay of St. Augustine near the
Tropic of Capricorn
The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reach ...
, and founded the city to maintain commercial relations.
It was not until the colonial period, after 1897, when the city really grew: with the efforts of
Joseph Gallieni
Joseph Simon Gallieni (24 April 1849 – 27 May 1916) was a French military officer, active for most of his career as a military commander and administrator in the French colonies where he wrote several books on colonial affairs.
He was rec ...
to install French administrative services, previously isolated on the island of Nosy Ve, to form the regional capital. Tulear grew along a grid pattern of cross streets, with wide avenues and public monuments.
Toliara is also where the dog breed
Coton de Tulear originates from.
Population
Toliara has seen a population boom over the last two decades, due to a rural exodus that has brought over 200,000 citizens into urban centers in the region.
The
Vezo
The Vezo is a Sakalava Malagasy term for ''Bajo'', the semi-nomadic maritime or sea people from Central–Eastern Indonesia (esp. Flores Sea) who settled in southern Madagascar. They speak a variety of Malagasy language, Malagasy dialect continuum, ...
, nomadic fishermen, are the indigenous ethnic group. Today they are being dominated by migrants from the South (
Mahafale,
Masikoro
The Masikoro are a group of farmers and herders who inhabit areas surrounding the Mikea Forest, a patch of mixed spiny forest and dry deciduous forest along the coast of southwestern Madagascar in Toliara Province. Along with Vezo and Mikea, th ...
,
Antandroy
The Tandroy also known as Ampatres in the 17th century are a traditionally nomadic ethnic group of Madagascar inhabiting the arid southern part of the island called Androy. In the 17th century however, the Tandroy emerged as a confederation of ...
) which make up more than half of the urban population. To these are added migrants from other urban regions, occupying positions in government and the private sector.
Religion
Toliara's cathedral is the archiepiscopal seat of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toliara, one of five in the country, originally the Diocese of Tuléar since 1957, renamed with the city in 1989, promoted in 2003 to Metropolitan archbishopric.
Culture and sights

Regional cultural highlights include:
* The Ifaty beach near Tulear is famous for its water and sands.
* The Museum of Arts and Traditions of the South of Madagascar (in Cedratom) presents the life, crafts and funerary art of the people in the area.
* The Recycling Museum (Musée du recyclage) is an art gallery dedicated to art made from recycled materials.
* The Regional Museum of the University of Toliara: this museum has a small ethnological collection and a huge egg of Aepyornis.
* The Museum of the Sea, founded by Professor Rabesandratana, is hosted by the Oceanographic Institute and covers the local aquatic flora and fauna, including a coelacanth caught in 1995 near Anakao.
* Boulevard Galliéni, the most representative street of Toliara, with several monuments, Main Post Office, Institute of Pedagogics, City Hall, various banks, shops and restaurants. One of the most important monuments is dedicated to
Monja Jaona
Monja Jaona (September 1910 – 3 September 1994) was a Madagascar, Malagasy politician and early nationalist who significantly drove political events on the island during his lifetime. He was a member of Jiny, a militant nationalist group formed ...
, a politician and former mayor ofToliara.
* Cathédrale Saint Vincent de Paul, a Roman Catholic cathedral, is the centre of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toliara.
* Katedraly Loterana, a protestant cathedral with two towers.
* Fiangonana Rasalama Maritiora is a modern protestant church named after
Rafaravavy Rasalama (1810–1837), the first christian martyr of Madagascar.
* The
Antsokay Arboretum: Established in 1980 at the initiative of the Swiss amateur botanist Petignat Hermann (1923–2000). This arboretum covers an area of 52 hectares, with more than 920 plant species, lemurs, radiated tortoises, snakes and chameleons.
* A locally known shell market, on the waterfront, behind the French Alliance, sells shells and various handicraft products. It is also known for the breeding of the dog Coton de Telear
Education
The
University of Toliara is historically the oldest center for higher education, founded in 1971 after the decentralization of the
University of Madagascar
This is a list of universities in Madagascar.
Universities
* Arsenal Higher Polytechnic Institute
*Catholic University of Madagascar
* Higher Institute of Communication, Business, and Management of Madagascar
* Higher Institute of Technolog ...
center. The university campus is located in
Maninday 5 km east of the city, and teaches Humanities and Social Science, Science, Philosophy, and Management.
The Fisheries and Marine Sciences Institute (IHSM) welcomes students from diverse backgrounds, and offers advanced training in fisheries, aquaculture, and the marine and coastal environment.
Toliara has a Technical School and two grammar schools (Lycée Laurent Botokeky and Antaninarenina High School), private and religious schools such as Sacred Heart College, Tsianaloke Mahavatse, and the School of Notre Dame, and a French international school,
Collège Etienne de Flacourt, which serves ''école primaire'' (primary school) and ''collège''.
[Collège Étienne-de-Flacourt]
" AEFE
The Agency for French Education Abroad, or Agency for French Teaching Abroad, (; AEFE), is a national public agency under the administration of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (France), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France that assures the qualit ...
. Retrieved on July 5, 2018.
Slogans
* Fiherena no maha-Toliara, "the
Fiherenana River is the soul of Toliara"
* Toliara tsy miroro, "Toliara never sleeps"
Economy and production
The port played a key role during the "boom corn" years in the 1980s and 90s. Today, the arrival of migrants contributing to agricultural production (maize, cassava and rice) and livestock (cattle and goats) supplying the city markets with food, has contributed to the development of small informal businesses: particularly among the Mahafale and Masikoro communities. The city specializes in the import and export of various products including sisal, cotton, rice, peanuts and soap. Production of sea salt thrives, from salt marshes and landscaped places in coastal areas.
The Bay of Toliara houses one of Madagascar's oil exploration sites.
The sea floor is rich in minerals gemstones (about 200 km to the north lies the Ilakaka sapphire deposit has operated since 1999) and ground salt.
More recently, Canadian companies begin operation of the ilmenite in the region of Tolanaro.
Beyond this mining and production, the industrial sector has declined in recent decades.
Tourism is a promising sector, thanks to the climate and natural assets of the hinterland (
Ifaty,
Anakao
Anakao is a coastal municipality, somewhere on the southwest coast of Madagascar, 35 kilometres south of Toliara
Toliara (also known as ''Toliary'', ; formerly ''Tuléar'') is a city in southern Madagascar. It is the capital of the Atsimo-Andre ...
,
Saint Augustin). Calm shallow seas and shallow support scuba diving, and Toliara remains a main destination for tours to southern Madagascar.
The Toliara Sands project, renamed
Base Toliara, seeks to exploit
ilmenite
Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula . It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printi ...
but encounters strong opposition despite an investment of 700 million dollars.
Geography and climate
Toliara is located on a broad coastal plain, surrounded by dunes and mangroves, near the Tropic of Capricorn in the Mozambique Channel. A nearby barrier reef (the Great Reef) is 18 km long and 3 km wide. The beach area is extended by an underwater beach along the continental shelf that slopes gently seaward. To the north lies the Delta Fiherenana.
Toliara is nicknamed the "City of the Sun" because it has a hot climate (25.3 °C average) which is
arid
Aridity is the condition of geographical regions which make up approximately 43% of total global available land area, characterized by low annual precipitation, increased temperatures, and limited water availability.Perez-Aguilar, L. Y., Plata ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''BWh''), with less than 400 mm annual rainfall. The city is constantly swept by a strong prevailing wind, the Tsio Katimo ("South Wind").
Infrastructure
The colonial legacy is still visible in the architecture and the urban landscape. Major road works and development were undertaken in 2003 to promote the development of the city.
The University Hospital Centre
CHU Mitsinjo Betanimena is located near the city center in the district of Tanambao. Another private health facility, St. Luke's Clinic, is located in the district of Sanfily on the road to the airport.
Transport
Toliara Airport
Toliara Airport is an airport in Toliara, Atsimo-Andrefana Region, Madagascar .
Airlines and destinations
References
Airports in Madagascar
Atsimo-Andrefana
{{Madagascar-airport-stub ...
is located in the city.
operates scheduled flights to here.
Sports
*
3FB Toliara (football)
*
JFC Toliara (football)
*
AS Comato (football)
See also
*
Isalo National Park
Isalo National Park is a National Park in the Ihorombe Region of Madagascar, in the southwestern corner of the Province of Fianarantsoa. The closest town is Ranohira, and the closest cities are Toliara and Ihosy. It is a sandstone landscape that ...
*
Beza Mahafaly Reserve
*
Coton de Tulear
References
External links
* Se
Tulear on WikiMapia* https://web.archive.org/web/20070929160859/http://www.fimfrance.com/_repository/files/2007-01_FS_exploration_petroliere.PDF
{{Authority control
Cities in Madagascar
Populated places in Atsimo-Andrefana
Regional capitals in Madagascar
Populated coastal places in Madagascar
Mozambique Channel