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Haute Loire

Haute-Loire
Department
Coat of arms of Haute-Loire
Coat of arms
Location of Haute-Loire in France
Location of Haute-Loire in France
Coordinates: 45°0′N 4°0′E / 45.000°N 4.000°E / 45.000; 4.000Coordinates: 45°0′N 4°0′E / 45.000°N 4.000°E / 45.000; 4.000
Country France
Region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Prefecture Le Puy-en-Velay
Subprefectures Brioude
Yssingeaux
Government
 • President of the General Council Gérard Roche
Area
 • Total 4,977 km2 (1,922 sq mi)
Population (2013)
 • Total 226,203
 • Rank 86th
 • Density 45/km2 (120/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Department number 43
Arrondissements 3
Cantons 19
Communes 258
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Haute-Loire (French pronunciation: ​[ot lwaʁ]; Occitan: Naut Léger) is a department in south-central France named after the Loire River. Haute-Loire is part of the current region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche, Lozère, Cantal, and Puy-de-Dôme. The inhabitants of the department are called Altiligériens (English : Altiligerians).

The department covers the upper reaches of the Loire and consists of the Loire Valley and the surrounding mountains in the Massif Central. It is one of the original 83 departments of France created in 1790 during the French Revolution. Parts of the department are included in the Livradois-Forez Regional Natural Park.

The first known inhabitants of this region were hunter-gatherers and it was later occupied by pastoralists, shepherds living in caves or simple huts. It later came under the control of a Gaulish tribe called Vellavi and at the time of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars, this area lay on the border of Gallia Narbonensis. The area became a Roman province in 121 BC, originally under the name Gallia Transalpina (Transalpine Gaul). The name distinguished it from Cisalpine Gaul on the near side of the Alps to Rome. In 40 BC, during the Second Triumvirate, Lepidus was given responsibility for Narbonese Gaul (along with Hispania and Africa), while Mark Antony was given the balance of Gaul.


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