Toliara

Toliara Tuléar Toliary
The city centre of Toliara (Tuléar) as of 2007.
Toliara Location of Toliara in Madagascar
Coordinates: 23°21′S 43°40′E / 23.350°S 43.667°E / -23.350; 43.667
Country	Madagascar
Region	Atsimo-Andrefana
Area
• Total	16 km2 (6 sq mi)
Population (2013)
• Total	156,710
• Density	9,800/km2 (25,000/sq mi)

Toliara (also known as Toliary, [tuliˈar]; formerly Tuléar) is a city in Madagascar.

It is the capital of the Atsimo-Andrefana region, located 936 km southwest of Antananarivo.

The current spelling of the name was adopted in the 1970s, and reflects the orthography of the Malagasy language. Many geographic place names, assigned French spellings during the colonial period, were altered following Malagasy independence in 1960.

The city has a population of 156,710 in 2013. As a port town it acts as a major import/export hub for commodities such as sisal, soap, hemp, cotton, rice, and peanuts.

In the 17th century, French buccaneers landed in the bay of St. Augustine near the Tropic of Capricorn, 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 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 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, nomadic fishermen, are the indigenous ethnic group. Today they are being dominated by migrants from the South (Mahafale, Masikoro, Antandroy) 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.

Regional cultural highlights include:

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.