Eilat
| Eilat | |||
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| Basic data | |||
| hebrew : | אילת | ||
| State : |
 Israel
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| District : | south | ||
| Coordinates : | 29 ° 33 ' N , 34 ° 57' E | ||
| Height : | 5 m | ||
| Area : | 84.789 km² | ||
| Residents : | 51,935 (as of 2018) | ||
| Population density : | 613 inhabitants per km² | ||
| Community code : | 2600 | ||
| Time zone : | UTC + 2 | ||
| Community type: | city | ||
| Mayor : | Meir Yitzchak Halevi | ||
| Website : | |||
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Eilat ( Hebrew אילת ,Arabicإيلات), alsoElatorElath, is a city on the southern tip ofIsraelin the south of theNegevdesert. The city on theGulf of Aqabais Israel's only access to theRed Seaand thus to theIndian Ocean. The length of the Israeli coastline is almost twelve kilometers. When the visibility is good, the coasts ofEgypt,JordanandSaudi Arabiacan be seenfrom the port.
history
Antiquity
The area around Eilat was mainly due to its copper mines of Timna desires, which accounted for a significant economic factor in ancient times. Egyptian expeditions there for the procurement of copper , which was rare in Egypt and of military importance, are already being carried out for predynastic times , the 4th millennium BC. Adopted. Since the 3rd millennium BC The place was abandoned for a long time and only again in the 14th century BC. Used by the Egyptians and rebuilt. In the 12th century BC The place was conquered by the Midianites . The forerunner settlements of Eilat itself were due to the better water supply in the area of today's Jordanian city of Akaba or a little south of it. In addition to Eilat, the Bible also mentions Ezjon-Geber in this area ( Dtn 2.8 EU ) and ( 2 Kings 14.22 EU ).
Already in the 10th century BC Eilat was later used as a port by the Romans and Byzantines . The connection to Solomon mentioned in the Old Testament as the port city “Elat” is to be regarded as rather unlikely, since archaeological evidence is missing and Phoenician Ezjon-Geber connections in connection with the Tarsis ships that went to Ophir were first established in the 8th century BC. Are occupied. Archaeologically, the first trade contacts regarding foreign ceramic products are also only for the end of the 9th century BC. Proven, which intensified in the following century. Due to the Phoenician mentions, there is probably an anachronistic transfer of the facts of the 8th century BC. In the reign of Solomon before. The generic term “ Gold from Ophir / Ophirgold” was also first used around 720 BC. Attested on an ostracon .
In ancient times , mainly ships called at the port, which transported the copper from the nearby mines of Timna. In the Nabatean- Roman times the city was called ' Aila' . In late antiquity, the Legio X Fretensis was stationed here. Aila owned an important Jewish community and was already the seat of a bishop in 325. In 1116 the city was conquered by the Crusaders . In 1167, Saladin was able to retake Eilat. The current separation of the cities of Eilat and Akaba is only attributed to the state division. The emergence of both cities is traced back to the pre-Christian settlement of Ezjon-Geber .
In the 20th century
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During the British Mandate , Eilat's permanent buildings consisted only of the few mud huts of the Umm Rashrash Police Station . According to the 1947 UN partition plan , the police station was assigned to the Jewish state. For Israel this represented a strategically important access to the Red Sea , which is why the capture of the place was attempted with Operation Uvda . On March 10, 1949, the police station was reached by the Negev and Golani Brigades and taken without a fight. The flag that was hoisted after it was taken and was provisionally put together from a sheet , a sewn-on Star of David and two strips of fabric soaked in blue ink, became famous as the " ink flag ".
The first years of the Israeli city of Eilat were characterized by a strong development of the infrastructure. In order to promote the city, it received the status of a development city . As early as 1950 the water supply was ensured by a pipeline from the Beer-Ora oasis , a first pier was built and an airfield was created. From this year the airline Arkia operated the airline to Eilat. This means that the connection from Eilat to other Israeli cities by plane is older than that by the bus route , which was only established in 1951.
In 1952 the pier was completed and Eilat was declared a port city . However, the pier quickly turned out to be too small to handle the expected freight volume. Therefore, the decision was made to build a larger port that could also accommodate large oil tankers. In 1956 the port expansion was completed. From the time the city was founded, Egypt repeatedly blocked the Strait of Tiran further south ; Only after the Sinai campaign could the port be used from 1956. The renewed closure of the Strait of Tiran for Israeli ships and international shipping to and from Eilat in 1967 cut the port again from international sea routes and was one of the triggers of the Six Day War .
From 1956, the city began to grow rapidly, encouraged by the settlement of immigrants from Morocco , South Africa and Romania . In 1959 Eilat was raised to city status.
In 1965 the last mud huts of the old Umm Rashrash police station were to be demolished in the course of further city expansion. The demolition was prevented in a violent and long-lasting public protest, in which former participants of Operation Uvda also took part. Today there are plans to move the city museum to the Umm Rashrash site and to integrate the mud huts into the overall concept.
After the peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, a provisional border crossing was set up at Taba in 1982 . After the final border disputes had been resolved, Taba was returned to Egypt in 1989 and a permanent border crossing was set up. After the successful conclusion of peace negotiations with Jordan , a border crossing was established between Eilat and Akaba in 1994.
From 1982 tourism in Eilat collapsed . On the one hand, due to the return of Sinai to Egypt, which limited the Israeli tourist region on the Red Sea to the city of Eilat. On the other hand, Israel was avoided as a vacation area by many tourists for security concerns. As a countermeasure, Eilat was declared a free trade zone with many tax breaks in 1985 .
In the 21st century
The new $ 500 million international airport opened on January 21, 2019 . The airport is named after the first Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon and his son Assaf, who both died while on duty for their country. Ramon Airport is 16 km north of Eilat and replaces the previous small J. Hozman Airport in the city. It has a capacity of 2.5 million passengers a year and is also intended to relieve the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.
geography
Location and importance
Eilat's population is about 49,000. Via Israel's only port on the Red Sea, v. a. Crude oil and motor vehicles imported in large quantities and transported further north. The city also has an international airport.
Eilat is a popular tourist destination due to the sea and the surrounding desert landscape . The mild winter climate and the extremely rare rainfall (less than ten days of precipitation per year) also contribute to its popularity. In the summer months, however, the temperatures reach at least 35, often even over 40 degrees. However, the heat is well tolerated by the dry air. The city also remained an attractive tourist destination because it had been spared Palestinian attacks until January 29, 2007 . A free trade zone was set up to support tourism.
Probably the biggest attraction is the dolphinarium , around five kilometers from Eilat, where you can dive and snorkel with dolphins on Eilat's only (but artificial) sandy beach . At the same time you can get to know the impressive underwater world of the Red Sea .
The most important problems of modern Eilat are the water supply and the isolated desert location. There are no natural water resources; the drinking water is obtained from the Arava Depression by desalination and pipelines . The distance to the next Israeli city of Beersheba is 250 kilometers (for comparison: Israel is only 470 kilometers long in north-south direction), between the two cities there are only isolated, mostly agricultural settlements.
The city is connected by its airport with the national airports in Tel Aviv and Haifa as well as destinations throughout Europe .
Climate table
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Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Eilat
Source: Israel Meteorological Service ; wetterkontor.de
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Security situation
Military facilities
Eilat has been home to a small base for the Israeli Navy since 1951 . The Patrol Boat Squadron 915 is currently located there. After the return of the Sinai Peninsula at the beginning of the 1980s, the command of the Navy for the Red Sea was transferred from Sharm El Sheikh to Eilat.
attacks
Due to its location away from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the small Palestinian population, Eilat itself was hardly at the focus of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Attacks were not initially directed against the city itself, but against its connections with the outside world, such as For example, the attack on the Beerscheva-Eilat bus route near Ma'ale Akrabim on the southern edge of the Makesh Ramon on the night of March 16-17 , 1954, in which eleven passengers in an Egged bus were returning from the celebrations for the fifth anniversary the liberation of Eilat by invaders from Jordan or the blockade of the connecting road through the Arava in 1966.
The first attack in Eilat itself was the suicide attack on January 29, 2007 in a shop in the Isidore shopping center , in which three Israelis were killed and others injured. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades known for the attack.
April 22, 2010: Two Katyusha rockets were fired at the city from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula . One hit a building in neighboring Aqaba, Jordan , and nobody was injured. The other probably fell into the sea.
On August 2, 2010, another five rockets were fired at Eilat. The floors missed the hotel complexes near the beach. One of the missiles landed in the open in Eilat, three in the Red Sea and one next to a hotel in Aqaba, where one man was reported to have been killed and four others injured.
Attacks on Israeli tourists in Egyptian holiday centers on the Red Sea, such as in Ras Burka in 1985 with seven fatalities or in Taba on October 7, 2004 with 32 victims, were even more serious and had a negative impact on both the Israeli and Egyptian tourism industries.
Culture
Tourism and attractions
In addition to numerous accommodations from B&B guest rooms to holiday apartments and luxury hotels , Eilat offers the following attractions:
- King City Amusement Park, an indoor amusement park.
- Coral nstrand Nature Reserve Coral Beach Nature Reserve
- Dolphin Reef , therapy and / or swimming with dolphins, spa
- Ice Park and Mall , ice rink with shopping promenade.
- Timna National Park , a large national park, in which the main attractions are next to the ancient copper mines and the so-called Solomon's Pillars.
- Red Canyon , a canyon washed out by erosion with reddish colored rocks.
- Botanic Garden Eilat , botanical garden in Eilat.
- Eilat Oceanarium
- the Red Sea Jazz Festival takes place in August
Day trips can be made to the Nabataean cities of Petra in Jordan or Avdat in the Negev, as well as St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai.
sport and freetime
Every year in January or February, the Israman has taken place in Eilat since 1999 - a long-distance triathlon (3.8 km swimming , 180 km cycling and 42.2 km running ) and half-distance. Eilat is the official start or finish point of the Israel National Trail "Shvil Israel", a continuous long-distance hiking trail to Kibbutz Dan .
education
In 2002 the Ben Gurion University of the Negev ( Be'er Scheva ) opened a university campus in Eilat . In 2005 the university branch had 300 students.
Town twinning
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literature
- Bernd Ulrich Schipper : Israel and Egypt in the royal era. The cultural contacts from Solomon until the fall of Jerusalem. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-525-53728-X .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ אוכלוסייה ביישובים 2018 (population of the settlements 2018). (XLSX; 0.13 MB) Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , August 25, 2019, accessed May 11, 2020 .
- ↑ jewishvirtuallibrary.org
- ↑ More detailed explanations of the biblical meaning of names can be found in: Scheel, Wolfgang: Lexicon of biblical local names in modern Israel, 3rd edition, Hammerbrücke 2003 ( ISBN 3-933750-32-6 ), p. 141 f.
- ↑ Bernd Ulrich Schipper: Israel and Egypt in the time of the kings . Pp. 66-70.
- ↑ Ramon Airport in Eilat as a new tourist magnet. In: Israelnetz .de. January 22, 2019, accessed January 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 2014: Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 3, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Entry on the military port of Eilat at globalsecurity.org
- ^ Samuel Katz, Israeli Elite Units since 1948, Oxford 1991, ISBN 0-85045-837-4 , p. 32.
- ↑ Mordecai Naor: Eretz Israel. The 20th century. Könemann, Cologne, 1998, ISBN 3-89508-594-4 , p. 317
- ↑ Coral Beach Nature Reserve (English) . Israel Nature & National Parks Protection Authority. Archived from the original on December 6, 2010. Retrieved on December 23, 2010.
- ^ Dolphin reef (English) . Dolphin Reef. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
- ↑ israel-trail.com
