Toulon (Toolong'), a seaport and naval arsenal of France, in the dep. of Var, on the Mediter-ranean, 42 miles ESE. of Marseilles and 564 SSE. of Paris. It lies at the head of a deep double bay, and rises towards the north in the form of an amphitheatre. The port is divided into the old and the new - the former, on the east, appropriated to merchant shipping, and the latter, on the west, surrounded by the dockyard, slips, arsenal, cannon-foundry, etc. The dockyard covers 240 acres; and belonging to the arsenal are the sail-yard, armoury, museum, etc. The fortifications were greatly extended after the conquest of Algeria (1830); and again since 1880. A cathedral, founded in 1096, the hotel-de-ville, and a large theatre are the chief buildings. The climate is dry and bracing, but the older portions of the town are still unsanitary, and were ravaged by cholera in 1884. Pop. (1872) 69,808; (1901) 83,142. The Greek Telonion and Roman Telo Martius, Toulon suffered much from the Saracens, and first rose into importance as a naval stronghold about 1600. The English were defeated off here by the united fleets of France and Spain in 1744; and in 1793 Toulon was occupied for four months by the English (under Hood) and the Spaniards, who, however, were forced to evacuate the place after a siege that is memorable as Napoleon's first great achievement. See Lambert's Histoire de Toulon (1886 et seq.).