Alais

Alais, a town of the French department of Gard, situated in a fertile plain, at the base of the Cévennes Mountains, 31 miles NW. of Nîmes by rail. It embraced the Protestant cause in the religious wars of France; and Louis XIII. and Cardinal Richelieu besieged and took it in 1629. Alais owes its prosperity chiefly to the mineral wealth of the surrounding district, which produces coal, iron, lead, zinc, and asphalt; there are large iron-foundries in the town and neighbourhood. There are also manufactures of silk and ribbons. Dumas the chemist was a native. Pop. 18,961.