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Port Hercules ( ) is the only deep-water port in Monaco. The port has been in use since ancient times. The modern port was completed in 1926, and underwent substantial improvements in the 1970s. It covers almost , enough to provide anchorage for up to 700 vessels. The port is located in the La Condamine district. Harbour pilots are required for all vessels longer than 30 metres. The depth of water in the harbour ranges from seven metres for standard berths and up to 40 metres for the outer piers and cruise ship docks.
According to the "travels of Hercules" theme, also documented by Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, both Greeks and native Ligures people asserted that Hercules passed through the area.
After the Gallic Wars, Monoecus, which served as a stopping-point for Julius Caesar on his way to campaign in Greece, fell under Roman Empire control as part of the Maritime Alps province (Gallia Transalpina).
The Roman poet Virgil called it "that castled cliff, Monoecus by the sea" ( Aeneid, VI.830). The commentator Servius's use of the passage (in R. Maltby, Lexicon of Ancient Latin Etymologies, Leeds) asserts, under the entry portus, that the epithet was derived:
No temple to Hercules has been found at Monaco (see also Lucan 1.405.), although the rocky ground and dense conurbation make future excavations unlikely.
The port is mentioned in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (III.v) and in Tacitus' Histories (III.42), when Fabius Valens was forced to put into the port ( Fabius Valens e sinu Pisano segnitia maris aut adversante vento portum Herculis Monoeci depellitur). In 2010, the Finnish manufacturer of marinas and pontoons was hired to deliver three new pontoons to Port Hercule. Monaco's old fixed piers were replaced by Marinetek's floating concrete pontoons. The renovation was completed in 2011.
The Port Hercule is home to the Foire de Monaco, an annual fair that runs from October to November.
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