Garlaban is a hill which looks out to Aubagne

Aubagne

Aubagne is a commune located east of Marseille in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.The French Foreign Legion has its headquarters there...

. The summit is 715 metres high although its highest point is the butte des pinsots (731 m).

It can be seen from most of the southern part of Bouches-du-Rhône

Bouches-du-Rhône

Bouches-du-Rhône is a department in the south of France named after the mouth of the Rhône River. It is the most populous department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Its INSEE and postal code is 13.-History of the department:...

, from Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

 to the valley of Huveaune

Huveaune

The Huveaune is a river in France. It is 48 kilometres long and rises in the Castelette cave at 590 m in the Sainte-Baume mountain range. It flows through Auriol, Roquevaire, Aubagne, and the metropolitan area of Marseille. It discharges into the Mediterranean Sea at...

, through to the motorway in Toulon

Toulon

Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

 and the one in Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

. In the past, seamen from Marseille used to look to it to find direction.

Cultural references

• It is perhaps best known thanks to Marcel Pagnol
  Marcel Pagnol
  Marcel Pagnol was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. In 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie Française.-Biography:...
  
  , who referred to it in My Father's Glory
  My Father's Glory
  My Father's Glory is a 1957 autobiographical novel by Marcel Pagnol. Its sequel is My Mother's Castle. It is the first of four volumes in Pagnol's Souvenirs d'enfance series. It is also a 1990 film based on the novel, and directed by Yves Robert....
  
  and My Mother's Castle.