These forests are known for their mushrooms, and have a rich flora and fauna, including the Pyrenean lily, the euproctis moth and horsetail of the woods.

Finally, the high valley of the Aude, otherwise called the Razès, consists of a riparian forest made of beech, alder, poplar or ash.

At the extreme east, near the Mediterranean, the rocks are carved by normal collapse faults which are due to the opening of the Golfe du Lion.

The river rises at the Roc d'Aude and passes through the Matemale and Puyvalador dams on the Capcir plateau at 1500m, then crosses the department from south to north across Axat, Limoux, and Quillan following the upper valley of the Aude.

As of 2019, there are 5 communes with more than 10,000 inhabitants:[4] Hammers and worked tools have been found on the hill of Grazailles at Carcassonne, dating from between 690,000 and 300,000 years ago.

The Romans, led by the consul-general Domitius Ahenobarbus, first occupied the oppidum of Montlaurès in 118 BC, a few kilometres to the north of Narbonne.

The position was strategically important since it stood at the crossroads of two Roman roads, the Via Aquitania and the Via Domitia, as well as by the sea near the mouth of the river Aude.

The Visigoths invaded the area in 435 AD at a time when Flavius Aetius, the Roman senator, was busy suppressing the Bagaudes, who were brigands or lawless types in central and northern Gaul.

The region was part of Septimania, so called because it was composed of seven bishoprics that the Visigoth kings had established there: Elne, Agde, Narbonne, Lodève, Béziers, Maguelonne, and Nîmes.

In 817, Louis le Débonnaire detached Carcassès and Razès from Septimania to reunite them with the marquisate of Toulouse and the kingdom of Aquitaine.

The Aude enjoyed strong wine production whilst at the same time the grain farmers of Lauragais faced great difficulties.

At the end of the 19th century, Aude experienced a second period of prosperity but there was a wine crisis triggered in 1901 because of over-production, fraud, and slumping sales.

Some 5,400 businesses operating in 250 craft professions achieved in the late 1990s an annual turnover of 3 billion francs (400 million Euros).

It is a low speed system, but a project is under way to build a fast line to Spain as part of the Trans-European Rail network.

Finally, Aude is crossed by the Canal du Midi which is a major waterway that allows tourists to pass from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

In the region around Limoux a major celebration of gastronomy known as Toques et Clochers (literally, "Tall Hats & Steeples') organized by the winegrowers from Sieur d'Arques' takes place over the weekend of Palm Sunday.

It is made from pork and pig's liver with a local variety of white beans (Lingots de Castelnaudary) flavoured with garigue herbs.

Finally, the Blanquette de Limoux is a sparkling white wine popular in the department whose origin dates back to the sixteenth century.

Occitan speech reached a wider audience and singers like Claudi Marti, Mans de Brèish, and La Sauze promoted its use.

[17] In a very limited section of the Orbiel Valley the department has had occasional pollution problems because of its abandoned gold mines (with mercury and arsenic).

Lagrasse stands on the River Orbieu and has an 8th-century abbey, two very attractive bridges and an unchanged and very compact and delightful medieval stone village centre.

It is a very attractive and sometimes wild area of steep hills, hidden valleys, woodland and vines, and contains some of the most memorable Cathar sites including Quéribus, Peyrepertuse and Villerouge-Termenès.

The Lauragais, that spreads on both sides of the administrative border between Aude and Haute-Garonne, is a historic and cultural area known since the Middle Ages for its abundant agricultural productions.

With Castelnaudary as a central and major city, this region is also famous for the role it played during the Albigensian Crusade and for its local heritage: Canal du Midi and its springs, abbeys and churches, castles, disk-shaped steles, dovecotes, windmills, bastides, etc.

In the Massif of Corbières on the plateau of Lacamp there are cavities formed by detrital rocks (marls, clays and puddingstone) carved by erosion.

In 1908 filmmakers abandoned scenery on canvas and Louis Feuillade filmed in front of the city towers for the Return of the cross, Engagement oath, and Enchanted guitar.

More recently, the Count's castle in the city was the setting for The Visitors by Jean-Marie Poire in 1972, while the Château de Puivert was used in La Passion Béatrice by Bertrand Tavernier in 1987, and The Ninth Gate by Roman Polanski in 1999.

Originally from Fontiers-Cabardès, the Aude painter Eugène Pech has created paintings of the city many times which are today scattered in various public and private collections.

Achilles Laugé (born 1861 in Arzens, died 1944 in Cailhau), misunderstood because of his pointillist technique, was able to show the dawning of spring especially with the broom and almond trees in bloom.

Another artist, Lina Bill (Louis Bonnot), born at Gruissan in 1855 and died in Avignon in 1936, painted Provence and the Mediterranean (museums of Narbonne, Carcassonne, and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris).