Geography of Israel

Israel is bordered by Lebanon and Syria in the north, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, and Egypt and the Gaza Strip in the south-west, and has coastlines on the Mediterranean in the west and the Gulf of Eilat (also known as the Gulf of Aqaba) in the south.

During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the West Bank from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, Gaza Strip (which was under Egyptian occupation), and Sinai from Egypt. It withdrew all troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip on September 12, 2005. The future status of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights remains to be determined.

The total area of the sovereign territory of Israel -excluding all territories captured by Israel in 1967 - is 20,770 (20,330 land) square kilometres or 8,019 (7,849 land) mi²;

The total area under Israeli law -including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights - is 22,145 (21,671 land) square kilometres or 8,550 (8,367 land) mi²;

The total area under Israeli control - including the military-controlled and Palestinian-governed territory of the West Bank - is 28,023 (27,549 land) square kilometres or 10,820 (10,637 land) mi².

Metropolitan areas

As of 2004, The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics defines three metropolitan areas: Tel Aviv (population 2,933,300), Haifa (population 980,600) and Be’er Sheva a.k.a. Be’ersheba (population 511,700) [2]. Jerusalem[3] may also be considered a metropolitan area, though its limits are hard to define since it spans communities in Israel proper and the West Bank, both Israeli and Palestinian, and even the boundaries of Jerusalem city itself are disputed. As of 2005, the official population of Jerusalem city is 706,368.

Topography

The country is divided into four regions: the coastal plain, the central hills, the Jordan Rift Valley, and the Negev Desert. The Mediterranean coastal plain stretches from the Lebanese border in the north to Gaza in the south, interrupted only by Cape Carmel at Haifa Bay. It is about forty kilometers wide at Gaza and narrows toward the north to about five kilometers at the Lebanese border. The region is fertile and humid (historically malarial) and is known for its citrus and viniculture. The plain is traversed by several short streams, of which only two, the Yarqon and Qishon, have permanent water flows.

East of the coastal plain lies the central highland region. In the north of this region lie the mountains and hills of Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee; farther to the south are the Samarian Hills with numerous small, fertile valleys; and south of Jerusalem are the mainly barren hills of Judea. The central highlands average 610 meters (2,000 ft) in height and reach their highest elevation at Mount Meron, at 1,208 meters (3,963 ft), in Galilee near Zefat (Safad). Several valleys cut across the highlands roughly from east to west; the largest is the Yizreel or Jezreel Valley (also known as the Plain of Esdraelon), which stretches forty-eight kilometers (30 mi) from Haifa southeast to the valley of the Jordan River, and is nineteen kilometers across at its widest point.

East of the central highlands lies the Jordan Rift Valley, which is a small part of the 6,500-kilometer-long (4,040 mi) Syrian-East African Rift. In Israel the Rift Valley is dominated by the Jordan River, Lake Tiberias (known also as the Sea of Galilee and to Israelis as Lake Kinneret), and the Dead Sea. The Jordan, Israel’s largest river (322 km / 200 mi), originates in the Dan, Baniyas, and Hasbani rivers near Mount Hermon in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and flows south through the drained Hula Basin into the freshwater Lake Tiberias.

Lake Tiberias is 165 square kilometers (63.7 mi²) in size and, depending on the season and rainfall, is at about 213 meters (700 ft) below sea level. With a water capacity estimated at 3 cubic kilometers (106 billion cubic feet), it serves as the principal reservoir of the National Water Carrier (also known as the Kinneret-Negev Conduit). The Jordan River continues its course from the southern end of Lake Tiberias (forming the boundary between the West Bank and Jordan) to its terminus in the highly saline Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 1,020 square kilometers (393 mi²) in size and, at 399 meters (1,309 ft) below sea level, is the lowest point in the world. South of the Dead Sea, the Rift Valley continues in the Nahal HaArava (Wadi al Arabah in Arabic), which has no permanent water flow, for 170 kilometers (106 mi) to the Gulf of Aqaba.

The Negev Desert comprises approximately 12,000 square kilometers (4,600 mi²), more than half of Israel’s total land area. Geographically it is an extension of the Sinai Desert, forming a rough triangle with its base in the north near Beersheba (aka Beersheva), the Dead Sea, and the southern Judean Hills, and it has its apex in the southern tip of the country at Elat. Topographically, it parallels the other regions of the country, with lowlands in the west, hills in the central portion, and the Nahal HaArava as its eastern border.

Climate

Israel has a Mediterranean climate characterized by long, hot, dry summers and short, cool, rainy winters, as modified locally by altitude and latitude. Summers are very humid along the Mediterranean coast but dry in the Negev. The climate is determined by Israel’s location between the subtropical aridity characteristic of Egypt and the subtropical humidity of the Levant or eastern Mediterranean. January is the coldest month, with average temperatures ranging from 5 °C to 12 °C (41 °F to 54 °F), and August is the hottest month at 18 °C to 38 °C (64 °F to 100 °F). In Eilat, the desert city, in the summer the temperatures are the highest in the country. But the dry air make it very pleasent.

More than 70 percent of the average rainfall in the country falls between November and March; June through September are often rainless. Rainfall is unevenly distributed, decreasing sharply as one moves southward. In the extreme south, rainfall averages less than 50 millimeters (2 in) annually; in the north, average annual rainfall exceeds 900 millimeters (35 in). Rainfall varies from season to season and from year to year, particularly in the Negev Desert. Precipitation is often concentrated in violent storms, causing erosion and flooding. During January and February, it may take the form of snow at the higher elevations of the central highlands, including Jerusalem. The areas of the country most cultivated are those that receive more than 300 millimeters (12 in) of rainfall annually; about one-third of the country is cultivable.