Nîmes (Provençal Occitan: Nimes in both classical and Mistralian norms) is a city in southern France. It is the capital of the Gard department. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and it is a popular tourist destination.
The city derives its name from that of a spring, Nemausus, in the Roman village. The contemporary symbol and shield of the city of Nîmes includes a crocodile chained to a palm tree with the inscription 'COL...
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Nîmes (Provençal Occitan: Nimes in both classical and Mistralian norms) is a city in southern France. It is the capital of the Gard department. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and it is a popular tourist destination.
The city derives its name from that of a spring, Nemausus, in the Roman village. The contemporary symbol and shield of the city of Nîmes includes a crocodile chained to a palm tree with the inscription 'COLNEM', an abbreviation of 'Colonia Nemausus', meaning the 'colony' or 'settlement' of Nemausus. Veterans of the Roman legions who had served Julius Caesar in his Nile campaigns, at the end of fifteen years of soldiering, were given plots of land to cultivate on the plain of Nîmes.
Nîmes was located on the Via Domitia, a Roman road constructed in 118 BC which connected Italy to Spain.
The site on which the built-up area of Nîmes has become established in the course of centuries is part of the edge of the alluvial plain of the Vistrenque River...
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