ALES

town, Gard dpartement, LanguedocRoussillon rgion, southeastern France. It lies along a bend of the Gardon d'Als River, at the foot of the Cvennes mountains, north-northwest of Nmes. Als is the focus of an industrial arrondissement in which chemicals, coal, metalwork, textiles, cattle feed, and wine are produced. The town's name meant industry in the language of its 10th-century-BC Phoenician founders. Alestium was its Roman name, and until 1926 the French called it Alais. Chartered in 1200, it became part of the kingdom of France in 1243. The Peace of Alais (1629) ended the French Wars of Religion, in which the town had been seriously damaged. A fort completed in 1788 to the design of Sbastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the celebrated military engineer, is now a museum and library. Modern urban renewal programs have enlarged the narrow streets of the town's central section and replaced unhealthful dwellings with modern apartments. Pop. (1990) 42,296.