page_title: Canal du Midi
section_title: Location and profile of the canal
hierarchical_section_title: Canal du Midi / Introduction / Location and profile of the canal
caption_attribution_description: English: Location of the Canal du Midi and its branch to Port-la-Nouvelle, part of the Canal des Deux Mers route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic
context_page_description: The Canal du Midi is a 240 km long canal in Southern France. Originally named the Canal royal en Languedoc and renamed by French revolutionaries to Canal du Midi in 1789, the canal was at the time considered one of the greatest construction works of the 17th century.
  The canal connects the Garonne to the Étang de Thau on the Mediterranean and along with the 193 km long Canal de Garonne forms the Canal des Deux Mers, joining the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The canal runs from the city of Toulouse down to the Étang de Thau near the Mediterranean.
  Strictly speaking, "Canal du Midi" refers to the portion initially constructed from Toulouse to the Mediterranean – the Deux-Mers canal project aimed to link together several sections of navigable waterways to join the Mediterranean and the Atlantic: first the Canal du Midi, then the Garonne which was more or less navigable between Toulouse and Bordeaux, then the Garonne Lateral Canal built later, and finally the Gironde estuary after Bordeaux.
context_section_description: The Canal du Midi is located in the south of France, in the departments of Hérault, Aude, and Haute-Garonne. Its course runs for 240 kilometres between Marseillan, at a place called Les Onglous, where the canal opens into the étang de Thau near Sète and Toulouse at Port de l'Embouchure.
  The Canal du Midi is a summit-level canal, climbing from Toulouse on the Atlantic side over a distance of 52 km to the Seuil de Naurouze or summit level, where the feeder canal enters. The total rise is 57.18 m, and the summit level is at an altitude of 189.43 m. This difference in level down to the sea is covered over the remaining distance of 188 km from Naurouze to Les Onglous on the Étang de Thau.
  The design canal depth is 2 m with a minimum of 1.80 m. The draft allowed is 1.50 m although regular users advise that even with 1.40 m boats will occasionally touch the bottom because of silt deposits in many places. The width on the surface is 20 m on average with variations between 16 m and 20 m. Finally, the width of the canal bed is 10 m.
  This longitudinal profile of the Canal du Midi shows it rising from Toulouse (1) to the Seuil de Naurouze (2), then dropping down to Castelnaudary (3), Carcassonne (4) and Trèbes (5). The canal continues to Béziers after the passing through the Fonserannes Locks (6), then Agde (7), to finish at Sète on the étang de Thau (8).
  The longest canal pound is 53.87 kilometres between Argens Lock and the Fonserannes Locks, while the shortest Canal pound is 105 m between the two Fresquel locks.
caption: Location of the Canal du Midi and its branch to Port-la-Nouvelle, part of the Canal des Deux Mers route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic
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