Aude is a department in the region of Occitanie in southern France. It is named after the Aude river.

The inhabitants of the Aude are known, in French, as Audois (women: Audoises).

History
Aude was created in 1790 during the French Revolution, when the whole of France was divided into departments, replacing the old provinces. Aude was formed with part of the old province of Languedoc.

It was divided in six districts: Castelnaudary, Carcassonne, Narbonne, Lagrasse, Limoux and Quillan, with Carcassonne as is capital.

In 1800, with the creation of the arrondissements in France, the six districts were changed into four arrondissements: Carcassonne, Castelnaudary, Limoux and Narbonne. On 10 September 1926, the arrondissement of  Castelnaudary was eliminated.

Early forms of habitation

A skull was found, and named Homme de Tautavel (Tautavel Man). It was found in a cave on the site called Caune de l'Arago, near Tautavel. The fossils are between 300.000 and 450.000 years old. There are over 80 fragments; the skull belonged to a man in his twenties. He was about 1.65 m, and weighed around 45–55 kg. Other remains are two mandibles, belonging to a woman in her fifties, and to a man, about 20 to 25 years old. It looks like they did not know how to use fire yet. It also looks like they might have been cannibals, or that they preferred to scavenge for food, rather than hunt. Some bones of rhinoceros, horses, wild sheep (called Mouflon), Tahrs (resemble wild goats), Muskox (a type of bovine), deer, and reindeer were found in the cave. There is an ongoing debate if this hominian is directly related to the Neanderthal. If they are not they would be Homines erecti (currently they are classified as H. erectus Tautavelensis). If they are direct predecessors of the Neanderthals, they would be Homo heidelbergensis.

Geography
Aude has an area of . It is surrounded by the departments of Pyrénées-Orientales, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Tarn, and Hérault, with the Gulf of Lion (Mediterranean Sea) on the east.

The main river in the department is the Aude river which gives its name to the department. Other important rivers are Fresquel and Orbieu; these two rivers are tributaries of the Aude river.

The highest point in the department is the Pic de Madrès (), in the French Pyrenees; it is  high.

Administration
The département is managed by the Departamental Council of Aude in Carcassonne. Aude is part of the region of Occitanie.

Administrative divisions
There are 3 arrondissements (districts), 19 cantons and 436 communes (municipalities) in Aude.

The following is a list of the 19 cantons of the Aude department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

 La Piège au Razès (1101)
 Carcassonne-1 (1102)
 Carcassonne-2 (1103)
 Carcassonne-3 (1104)
 Le Bassin chaurien (1105)
 Les Basses Plaines de l'Aude (1106)
 Les Corbières (1107)
 Le Lézignanais (1108)
 La Région Limouxine (1109)
 La Malpère à la Montagne Noire (1110)
 Narbonne-1 (1111)
 Narbonne-2 (1112)
 Narbonne-3 (1113)
 La Haute-Vallée de l'Aude (1114)
 Le Haut-Minervois (1115)
 Le Sud-Minervois (1116)
 Les Corbières maritimes (1117)
 La Montagne d'Alaric (1118)
 La Vallée de l'Orbiel (1119)

Demographics
The Aude department has a population, in 2014, of 365,478, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The arrondissement of Carcassonne, with 161,442 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two arrondissements, Limoux and Narbonne, have respectively 44,467 and 159,569 inhabitants.

Evolution of the population in Aude

The main cities in the department are:

Gallery

Related pages
 Arrondissements of the Aude department
 Communes of the Aude department

References

Other websites

 General council website 
 Prefecture website 
 Aude official tourism website 
 Photos of the Aude Department 

Departments in Occitanie