1.
Asherah
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Asherah, in ancient Semitic religion, is a mother goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources. She appears in Akkadian writings by the name of Ašratu, Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess ʼAṯirat. Asherah is identified as the consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic El, the oldest deities of their respective pantheons, as well as Yahweh. This role gave her a high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon. Despite her association with Yahweh in extra-biblical sources, Yahweh in the Bible commands the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of worship to Yahweh Himself. The Book of Jeremiah, written circa 628 BC, possibly refers to Asherah when it uses the title Queen of Heaven in Jeremiah 7, 16-18 and Jeremiah 44, for a discussion of the Queen of Heaven in the Hebrew Bible, see Queen of heaven. In the Ugaritic texts Athirat is almost always given her full title rbt ʼaṯrt ym, rabat ʼAṯirat yammi and this occurs 12 times in the Baʿal Epic alone. The name is understood by various translators and commentators to be from the Ugaritic root ʼaṯr stride, cognate with the Hebrew root ʼšr, there she appears to champion Yam, in his struggle with Baal. Her other main divine epithet was qaniyatu ʾilhm which may be translated as the creatrix of the Gods. In those texts, Athirat is the consort of the god El, there is one reference to the 70 sons of Athirat and she is also called Elat and Qodesh, holiness. Athirat in Akkadian texts appears as Ashratum, the wife of Anu, among the Hittites this goddess appears as Asherdu or Asertu, the consort of Elkunirsa and mother of either 77 or 88 sons. Among the Amarna letters a King of the Amorites is named Abdi-Ashirta, in Egypt, beginning in the Eighteenth Dynasty, a Semitic goddess named Qudshu Holiness begins to appear prominently, equated with the native Egyptian goddess Hathor. Some think this is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name, some biblical scholars believe that Asherah at one time was worshiped as the consort of Yahweh, the national God of Israel. Josiahs grandfather Manasseh had erected one of such statues, the inscriptions found invoke not only Yahweh but El and Baal, and two include the phrases Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah and Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah. The Asherah is most likely a cultic object, although the relationship of this object to Yahweh and to the goddess Asherah, in another inscription called Yahweh and his Asherah, there appears a cow feeding its calf. If Asherah is to be associated with Hathor/Qudshu, it can then be assumed that the cow is whats being referred to as Asherah, william Devers book Did God Have a Wife. The word Asherah is translated in Greek as alsos, grove, or alse, groves, or occasionally by dendra, trees, Vulgate in Latin provided lucus or nemus, the association of Asherah with trees in the Hebrew Bible is very strong. For example, she is found under trees and is made of wood by human beings, trees described as being an asherah or part of an asherah include grapevines, pomegranates, walnuts, myrtles, and willows
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
4.
Districts of Israel
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There are six main administrative districts of Israel, known in Hebrew as mehozot and Arabic as mintaqah and fifteen sub-districts known as nafot. Each sub-district is further divided into Cities, municipalities, and Regional councils it contains, the Judea and Samaria Area, however, is not included in the number of districts and sub-districts as Israel has not applied its civilian jurisdiction in that part of the West Bank. Population,1,358,600 District capital, Nazareth Safed – population,113,700 Kinneret – population,110,500 Yizreel – population,482,300 Akko – population,605,700 Golan – population,46,400. Population,966,700 District capital, Haifa Haifa – population,560,600 Hadera – population,406,000 Central District. Population,2,024,500 District capital, Ramla Sharon – population,446,500 Petah Tikva – population,685,000 Ramla – population,326,400 Rehovot – population,566,600 Tel Aviv District. Population,1,350,000 District capital, Tel Aviv Southern District, currently only the Coordination and Liaison Administration operates there. Jewish Population,407,118, Palestinian population, roughly 1.8 million, largest city, Modiin Illit The name Judea and Samaria for this geographical area is based on terminology from the Hebrew and other sources relating to ancient Israel and Judah/Judea. The territory has been under Israeli control since the 1967 Six-Day War but not annexed by Israel, in Jewish religious terms, it is part of the Land of Israel, which leads to politically contentious issues. However, it is not considered part of the State of Israel by the UN, urban Israel, Details and pictures about many cities in Israel
5.
Southern District (Israel)
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The Southern District is one of Israels six administrative districts, and is the largest in terms of land area as well as the most sparsely populated. It covers most of the Negev desert, as well as the Arava valley, the population of the Southern District is 1,086,240 and its area is 14,185 km2. It is 79. 66% Jewish and 12. 72% Arab and 7. 62% Others, the district capital is Beersheba, while the largest city is Ashdod. Beershebas dormitory towns of Omer, Meitar, and Lehavim are all relatively affluent, while the development towns, some villages do not fall under the jurisdiction of a regional council. These include, Mahane Yatir Umm al-Hiran List of cities in Israel Arab localities in Israel Gaza Strip
6.
Meir Yitzhak Halevi
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Meir Yitzhak Halevi is an Israeli politician who currently serves as mayor of Eilat. Halevi was born in Jerusalem, in 1953, and is of Yemeni origin and he moved to Eilat in 1978 and ran the community centre and management college in the city. He was elected to the city council in 1993, and ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1998, between 1998 and 2003 he served as opposition leader on the council. He won the election in 2003, and following the formation of Kadima. In the 2008 elections he won 50% of the vote to retain office and he gained notoriety for his City Without Crime program. List of Eilats mayors Eilat Municipality
7.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
8.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
9.
Port of Eilat
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The Port of Eilat is the only Israeli port on the Red Sea, located at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. The Port of Eilat opened in 1947 and is mainly used for trading with Far East countries. It allows Israeli shipping to reach the Indian Ocean without having to sail through the Suez Canal, egyptian naval blockades of the Straits of Tiran which control access to Eilat featured prominently in the events which led to two major Arab-Israeli Conflicts, The Sinai War and the Six-Day War. Ship traffic at Eilat is relatively low, one reason is that Eilat is situated at a considerable distance from the center of the country. Another is the fact that unlike the other main seaports, Eilats is yet to be served by a railway line. Also, coastal tourism uses compete with any prospects of expanding the ports facilities, patrol Boats Squadron 915 of the Israeli Navy is based here. To alleviate the limitations imposed on the development, the government has proposed the Southern Gateway plan for the area. This proposal entails the construction of a massive combined air-rail-sea logistical center to be located in the north of the city. The details of this include, relocating the current port to an excavated area north of the city. International investors such as the South African Harris Group of Companies, in January 2012, the Minister of Transportation instructed the Israel Port Authority to begin a preliminary survey of the land to determine the optimal location of an excavated port north of Eilat. Due to environmental concerns, the Eilat Port Authority spent millions to build a loader that prevents phosphate dust from dispersing into the sea, Eilat Airport Ovda International Airport Taba Border Crossing Ramon Airport Yotvata Airfield Official site
10.
Resort
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A resort is a self-contained commercial establishment that endeavors to provide most of a vacationers wants, such as food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term resort may be used for a property that provides an array of amenities, typically including entertainment. A hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort, such as the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island, some resorts are also timeshare or fractionally owned, or wholly owned condominium complexes. A resort is not always a commercial establishment operated by a single company, commonly these facilities are of higher quality than would be expected if one were to stay at a hotel or eat in a towns restaurants. Closely related to these resorts are convention and large meeting sites, generally these occur in cities where special meeting halls, together with ample accommodations as well as varied dining and entertainment, are provided. An all-inclusive resort charges a price that includes most or all items. At a minimum, most inclusive resorts include lodging, unlimited food, drink, sports activities, all-inclusive resorts are found in the Caribbean, particularly in Dominican Republic, Egypt, and elsewhere. Many also offer sports and other included in the price as well. They are often located in warmer regions, the all-inclusive model originated in the Club Med resorts, which were founded by the Belgian Gérard Blitz. Some all-inclusive resorts are designed for specific vacation interests, for example, certain resorts cater to adults, while even more specialized properties accept couples only. Other all-inclusive resorts are geared toward families, with facilities like craft centers, game rooms, all-inclusive resorts are also very popular locations for destination weddings. A spa resort is a short term residential/lodging facility with the purpose of providing individual services for spa-goers to develop healthy habits. Historically many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or sources of mineral waters, golf resorts are resorts that cater specifically to the sport of golf, and include access to one or more golf course and or clubhouse. Golf resorts typically provide golf packages that provide visitors with all greens and cart fees, range balls, accommodations, in North America a ski resort is generally a destination resort in a ski area. Ski resort is less likely to refer to a town or village, a megaresort is a type of destination resort which is of an exceptionally large size, such as those along the Las Vegas Strip. In Singapore integrated resort is a euphemism for a destination resort. A holiday village is a type of self-contained resort in Europe, a holiday camp in the United Kingdom refers to a resort where the accommodation is in chalets. The term holiday park is used for a resort where the accommodation includes static caravans, there are 1500+ timeshare resorts in the U. S. that are operated by major hospitality, timeshare-specific, or independent companies
11.
Red Sea
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The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait, to the north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez. The Red Sea is a Global 200 ecoregion, the sea is underlain by the Red Sea Rift which is part of the Great Rift Valley. The Red Sea has an area of roughly 438,000 km2, is about 2250 km long and. It has a depth of 2211 m in the central median trench. However, there are also extensive shallow shelves, noted for their marine life, the sea is the habitat of over 1,000 invertebrate species, and 200 soft and hard corals. It is the worlds northernmost tropical sea, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Red Sea as follows, On the North. The Southern limits of the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, a line joining Husn Murad and Ras Siyyan. Red Sea is a translation of the Greek Erythra Thalassa, Latin Mare Rubrum, Arabic, البحر الأحمر. Al-Baḥr Al-Aḥmar, Somali Badda Cas and Tigrinya Qeyyiḥ bāḥrī, the name of the sea may signify the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured Trichodesmium erythraeum near the waters surface. A theory favored by modern scholars is that the name red is referring to the direction south. The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to the cardinal directions, herodotus on one occasion uses Red Sea and Southern Sea interchangeably. Historically, it was known to western geographers as Mare Mecca. Some ancient geographers called the Red Sea the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. C, in that version, the Yam Suph is translated as Erythra Thalassa. The Red Sea is one of four seas named in English after common color terms — the others being the Black Sea, the White Sea and the Yellow Sea. The direct rendition of the Greek Erythra thalassa in Latin as Mare Erythraeum refers to the part of the Indian Ocean. The earliest known exploration of the Red Sea was conducted by ancient Egyptians, one such expedition took place around 2500 BC, and another around 1500 BC. Both involved long voyages down the Red Sea, historically, scholars argued whether these trips were possible
12.
Gulf of Aqaba
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The Gulf of Aqaba or Gulf of Eilat is a large gulf at the northern tip of the Red Sea, east of the Sinai Peninsula and west of the Arabian mainland. Its coastline is divided between four countries, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, the gulf is east of the Sinai Peninsula and west of the Arabian Peninsula. With the Gulf of Suez to the west, it extends from the portion of the Red Sea. It reaches a depth of 1,850 m in its central area. The gulf measures 24 kilometres at its widest point and stretches some 160 kilometres north from the Straits of Tiran to where Israel meets Egypt, like the coastal waters of the Red Sea, the gulf is one of the worlds premier sites for diving. At this northern end of the gulf are three important cities, Taba in Egypt, Eilat in Israel, and Aqaba in Jordan and they are strategically important commercial ports and popular resorts for tourists seeking to enjoy the warm climate. Further south, Haql is the largest Saudi Arabian city on the gulf, on Sinai, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab are the major centers. The largest population center is Aqaba, with a population of 108,000, followed by Eilat with a population of 48,000. The gulf is one of two created by the Sinai Peninsulas bifurcation of the northern Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez lying to the west of the peninsula. Geologically, the forms the southern end of the Dead Sea Transform. It contains three small pull-apart basins, the Elat Deep, Aragonese Deep and Dakar Deep, formed between four left lateral strike-slip fault segments, movement on one of these faults caused the 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake. Trade across the Red Sea between Thebes port of Elim and Elat at the head of the gulf is documented as early as the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, egyptian settlements near Timna at the head of the gulf date to the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. At the northern edge, the ancient city of Ayla was a hub for the Nabateans. The Romans built the Via Traiana Nova, which joined the Kings Highway at Aqaba and connected Africa to Asia, Aqaba was a major Ottoman port, connected to Damascus and Medina by the Hejaz railway. During World War I, the Battle of Aqaba was the key battle that ended a 500-year Ottoman rule over Greater Syria, the gulf is one of the most popular diving destinations in the world. About 250,000 dives are performed annually in Eilats 11 km coastline, the Landscape of Wadi Rum to the east of the northern edge of the gulf is a popular destination. Other destinations are the ruins of the civilization of Ayla in the city of Aqaba. Whales, orcas, dolphins, dugongs, and whale sharks live in the gulf as well
13.
Tourism in Israel
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Tourism in Israel is one of Israels major sources of income, with a record 3.54 million tourist arrivals in 2013. Israel offers a plethora of historical and religious sites, beach resorts, archaeological tourism, Israel has the highest number of museums per capita in the world. In 2009, the two most visited sites were the Western Wall and the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the most visited city is Jerusalem and the most visited site was the Western Wall. Jerusalem is the city with 3.5 million tourist arrivals annually. One of the oldest cities in the world, it is the capital and largest city of Israel, if the area. It is a city to the three major Abrahamic religions-Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and hosts a myriad of historical, archaeological, religious. West Jerusalem was built mainly after the creation of Israel in 1948, selected tourist attractions within this area are, The German Colony, a Temple Society settlement, with a colorful mix of architectural styles. Mea Shearim, established in the century and inhabited largely by ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews. Ein Karem, the birthplace of John the Baptist, is one of the four most visited Christian pilgrimage sites in Israel. Mt. Zion, the resting place of King David. Mt. Scopus, site of the Hebrew University and standing at 2710 feet above sea level, both the Temple Mount and the Dead Sea are visible from this location. East Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-day War and considered by the community as being under Israeli occupation. It is the location of, The Old City of Jerusalem, traditionally divided into four quarters, Armenian Quarter, Christian Quarter, Muslim Quarter and Jewish Quarter. Most importantly, the Temple Mount, site of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem with only the Western Wall at its foot remaining, various locations have been proposed as the Tomb of Jesus, traditionally identified as where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands. Nor has Golgotha, the hill where he was crucified been located. Immediately south of the Jewish Quarter lies the City of David with archaeological digs including the Siloam Tunnel, the unfinalized status of East Jerusalem has caused issues when attempting to market Jerusalem to international tourists. Israel rejected the ruling, with the Ministry of Tourism releasing a statement that said the ad provided basic, the ruling from 2009 also included criticism about Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights being shown as part of Israel. With 2.3 million tourist visits in 2013, Tel Aviv is Israels second-largest city, the citys greater area is the largest with 3 million inhabitants
14.
Negev
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The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The regions largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba, in the north, at its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city of Eilat. It contains several development towns, including Dimona, Arad and Mitzpe Ramon, as well as a number of small Bedouin cities, including Rahat and Tel as-Sabi and Lakyah. There are also several kibbutzim, including Revivim and Sde Boker, the origin of the word negev is from the Hebrew root denoting dry. In the Bible, the word Negev is also used for the direction south, during the British Mandate it was called Beersheba sub-district. The Negev covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km² or at least 55% of the land area. It forms a triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features, among the latter are three enormous, craterlike makhteshim, which are unique to the region, Makhtesh Ramon, Makhtesh Gadol, and Makhtesh Katan. The Negev is a rocky desert and it is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis and deep craters. It can be split into five different ecological regions, northern, western and central Negev, the high plateau, the northern Negev, or Mediterranean zone, receives 300 mm of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils. The western Negev receives 250 mm of rain per year, with light, sand dunes can reach heights of up to 30 metres here. The high plateau area of Ramat HaNegev stands between 370 metres and 520 metres above sea level with temperatures in summer and winter. The area gets 100 mm of rain per year, with inferior, the Arabah Valley along the Jordanian border stretches 180 km from Eilat in the south to the tip of the Dead Sea in the north. The Arabah Valley is very arid with barely 50 mm of rain annually and it has inferior soils in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives. Vegetation in the Negev is sparse, but certain trees and plants there, among them Acacia, Pistacia, Retama, Urginea maritima. A small population of Arabian leopards, an animal in the Arabian peninsula. The Negev Tortoise is a endangered species that currently lives only in the sands of the western. The Negev shrew is a species of mammal of the family Soricidae found only in Israel, hyphaene thebaica or doum palm can be found in the Southern Negev
15.
Arabah
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The Arabah, known in Hebrew as Arava or Aravah, is a geographic name for the area south of the Dead Sea basin which forms part of the border between Israel to the west and Jordan to the east. This included the Jordan River Valley between Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea, the Dead Sea itself, and what is called today the Arava Valley. The modern use of the term is restricted to this section alone. The southern stretch of the Arabah is 166 km in length from the Gulf of Aqaba to the shore of the Dead Sea. Topographically, the region is divided into three sections, from this crest, the land slopes gently northward over the next 74 km to a point 15 km south of the Dead Sea. In the last section, the Arabah drops steeply to the Dead Sea, the Arabah is scenic with colorful cliffs and sharp-topped mountains. The southern Arabah is hot and dry and virtually without rain, there are numerous species of flora and fauna in the Aravah Valley. Notably the Caracal, Caracal caracal, is found on savannas of the valley, in Biblical times, the Arava was a center of copper production, King Solomon is believed to have had mines here based on copper mines dating to his reign. The Arabah was home to the Edomites, east of the Arabah was the domain of the Nabateans, the builders of the city of Petra. Kibbutz Yotvata founded in 1957, was named for an ancient town in the mentioned in the Bible. Kibbutz Lotan has a bird-watching center, the oldest moshav in the central Arava area is Ein Yahav. The Israel–Jordan Peace Treaty was signed in the Arava on October 26,1994, the governments of Jordan and Israel are promoting development of the region. There is a plan to bring sea water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea through a canal and this project was once an issue of dispute between Jordan and Israel, but it was recently agreed that the project shall be constructed on and by the Jordanian side. In 2004, the Jordanian administrative district of Wadi Araba had a population of 6,775, the main economic activities for these Arabah residents revolve around herding sheep, agriculture, handicrafts, and the Jordanian Army. Timna Valley Park is notable for its rock carvings, some of the oldest copper mines in the world. On the Jordanian side is the famous Wadi Rum, which is famous among rock climbers, hikers, campers, Feynan Ecolodge was opened in Wadi Feynan by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in 2005. Below is a list of Jordanian population clusters in Wadi Araba, The total population of the Jordanian portion of the region is 103,000, below is a list of Israeli localities in the Arava, from north to south. The population of the Israeli portion is 52,000, of which 47,500 live in Eilat, and just over 5,000 live in 20 small towns north of Eilat, the Israeli residents of the region are almost entirely Jews
16.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
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Taba, Egypt
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Taba is a small Egyptian town near the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. Taba is the location of Egypts busiest border crossing with neighbouring Eilat and it is the northernmost resort of Egypts Red Sea Riviera. Taba was located on the Egyptian side of the line agreed to in 1949. During the Suez Crisis in 1956 it was occupied but returned to Egypt when Israel withdrew in 1957. Israel reoccupied the Sinai Peninsula after the Six-Day War in 1967, although most of Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982, Taba was the last portion to be returned. After a long dispute, the issue was submitted to a commission composed of one Israeli, one Egyptian. In 1988, the commission ruled in Egypts favour, and Israel returned Taba to Egypt in February 1989, the resort community of Taba Heights is located some 20 km south of Taba. It features several hotels, including The Hyatt Regency, Marriott, Sofitel. It is also a significant diving area where people come to either free dive. Other recreation facilities include a new desert style golf course, on October 7,2004, the Hilton Taba was hit by a bomb that killed 34 people including Israelis. Twenty-four days later, an inquiry by the Egyptian Interior Ministry into the bombings concluded that the perpetrators received no external help but were aided by Bedouins on the peninsula. In February 2014, a coach taking tourists to Saint Catherines Monastery in Sinai exploded in Taba shortly before crossing the border to Israel, at least two South Koreans were killed and 14 injured, the blast was blamed on terrorists. Despite warnings, tourism from Israel to Taba was up in 2016 with many traveling to enjoy the southernmost Red Sea resort, köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert, as the rest of Egypt. Taba heights temperatures are cooler and it has slightly more rainy days. Located just southwest of Taba is an area on 3590 km². This protected area includes geological formations such as caves, a string of valleys, there are also some natural springs in the area. The area has 25 species of mammals,50 species of rare birds, since Taba existed only as a small Bedouin village, there was never any real transportation infrastructure
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Jordan
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Jordan, officially The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the east and south, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, Israel, Palestine and the Dead Sea to the west, Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe. The capital, Amman, is Jordans most populous city as well as the countrys economic, what is now Jordan has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period. Three stable kingdoms emerged there at the end of the Bronze Age, Ammon, Moab, later rulers include the Nabataean Kingdom, the Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. After the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in 1916 during World War I, the Emirate of Transjordan was established in 1921 by the then Emir Abdullah I and became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan became an independent state known as The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Jordan captured the West Bank, which it later lost in 1967, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and is one of two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. The country is a monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. Jordan is a relatively-small, semi-arid, almost-landlocked country with a population numbering at 9.5 million, Sunni Islam, practiced by around 92% of the population, is the dominant religion in Jordan. It coexists with an indigenous Christian minority, Jordan is considered to be among the safest of Arab countries in the Middle East, and has avoided long-term terrorism and instability. The kingdom is also a refuge to thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing the Islamic State, while Jordan continues to accept refugees, the recent large influx from Syria placed substantial strain on national resources and infrastructure. Jordan is classified as a country of high human development with a middle income economy. The Jordanian economy, one of the smallest economies in the region, is attractive to foreign investors based upon a skilled workforce, the country is a major tourist destination, and also attracts medical tourism due to its well developed health sector. Nonetheless, a lack of resources, large flow of refugees. Jordan is named after the Jordan River, where Jesus is said to have been baptized, the origin of the rivers name is debated, but the most common explanation is that it derives from the word yarad, found in Hebrew, Aramaic, and other Semitic languages. Others regard the name as having an Indo-Aryan origin, combining the words yor and don, another theory is that it is from the Arabic root word wrd, as in people coming to a major source of water. The name Jordan appears in an ancient Egyptian papyrus called Papyrus Anastasi I, the lands of modern-day Jordan were historically called Transjordan, meaning beyond the Jordan River. The name was Arabized into Al-Urdunn during the Muslim conquest of the Levant, during crusader rule, it was called Oultrejordain
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Aqaba
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Aqaba is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the centre of the Aqaba Governorate. The city has a population of 188,160 and a area of 375 square kilometres. Today, Aqaba plays a role in the development of the Jordanian economy, through the vibrant trade. The Port of Aqaba also serves other countries in the region, Aqabas strategic location at the northeastern tip of the Red Sea between the continents of Asia and Africa, has made its port important over the course of thousands of years. The ancient city was called Ayla, its location and proximity to copper mines, made it a regional hub for copper production. Ayla became a bishopric under Byzantine rule and later became a Latin Catholic titular see after Islamic conquest around 600 AD, the Great Arab Revolts Battle of Aqaba, depicted in the film Lawrence of Arabia, resulted in victory for Arab forces over the Ottoman defenders. They are expected to turn the city into a tourism hub in the region. However, industrial and commercial activities remain important, due to the location of the city as the countrys only seaport. The city was called Ayla in ancient times, which is a Semitic name written in historical sources in different ways, Aila, Ailana, Elana, Haila, Ailath, Elath. The exact origin of name is disputed, some argue that it comes from the Hebrew root Ayl which is also the root for the word Elah, while others argue it is named after the term Ayl that appears in the ancient Mesopotamic poem called the Epic of Gilgamesh. Aqaba gained its name during the Mamluk era, which means Obstacle in Arabic, due to the mountains surrounding the city. Excavations at Tall Hujayrat Al-Ghuzlan and Tall Al-Magass in Aqaba revealed that the city has been a settlement since 4000 BC. This period is unknown due to the absence of written historical sources. The people who inhabited the site had developed a water system in irrigating their crops which was mostly grapes. Several different-sized clay pots were found suggesting that copper production was a major industry in the region. Scientific studies performed on site revealed that it had undergone two earthquakes, with the one leaving the site completely destroyed. They profited from its location at the junction of trading routes between Asia and Africa
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Haql
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Haql is a town in the northwest of Saudi Arabia near the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, adjacent to Aqaba across the Jordanian border. The coasts of Egypt, Israel and Jordan can be seen from Haql, Haql is a small city and it is not a port used for Red Sea shipping, and the relatively small Saudi population does not engage in water desalination. As a result, the reefs in this area are pristine and populated with diverse flora, the coasts of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba in this region are scenic. There are views of the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula across the Gulf of Aqaba, shipping is limited to traffic to and from the Port of Aqaba, Jordan. It lies 5 km from the Jordanian border and it has become one of the most attractive cities to visit for diving sports and accommodation. The two most attractive factors are its climate and geographical location, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities has added more than 4 attractive spots on Haql
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Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago
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Desert
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A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation, about one third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the regions where little precipitation occurs. Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation falls, by the temperature that prevails. Deserts are formed by weathering processes as large variations in temperature between day and night put strains on the rocks which consequently break in pieces, although rain seldom occurs in deserts, there are occasional downpours that can result in flash floods. Rain falling on hot rocks can cause them to shatter and the resulting fragments and this picks up particles of sand and dust and wafts them aloft in sand or dust storms. Wind-blown sand grains striking any solid object in their path can abrade the surface, rocks are smoothed down, and the wind sorts sand into uniform deposits. The grains end up as level sheets of sand or are piled high in billowing sand dunes, other deserts are flat, stony plains where all the fine material has been blown away and the surface consists of a mosaic of smooth stones. These areas are known as desert pavements and little further erosion takes place, other desert features include rock outcrops, exposed bedrock and clays once deposited by flowing water. Temporary lakes may form and salt pans may be left when waters evaporate, there may be underground sources of water in the form of springs and seepages from aquifers. Where these are found, oases can occur, plants and animals living in the desert need special adaptations to survive in the harsh environment. Plants tend to be tough and wiry with small or no leaves, water-resistant cuticles, some annual plants germinate, bloom and die in the course of a few weeks after rainfall while other long-lived plants survive for years and have deep root systems able to tap underground moisture. Animals need to cool and find enough food and water to survive. Many are nocturnal and stay in the shade or underground during the heat of the day and they tend to be efficient at conserving water, extracting most of their needs from their food and concentrating their urine. Some animals remain in a state of dormancy for long periods and they then reproduce rapidly while conditions are favorable before returning to dormancy. People have struggled to live in deserts and the surrounding lands for millennia. Nomads have moved their flocks and herds to wherever grazing is available, the cultivation of semi-arid regions encourages erosion of soil and is one of the causes of increased desertification. Many trade routes have been forged across deserts, especially across the Sahara Desert, large numbers of slaves were also taken northwards across the Sahara
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Metamorphic rock
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Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock types, in a process called metamorphism, which means change in form. The original rock is subjected to heat and pressure, causing profound physical and/or chemical change, the protolith may be a sedimentary, an igneous, or even an existing type of metamorphic rock. Metamorphic rocks make up a part of the Earths crust. They are classified by texture and by chemical and mineral assemblage and they may be formed simply by being deep beneath the Earths surface, subjected to high temperatures and the great pressure of the rock layers above it. They can form from tectonic processes such as continental collisions, which cause horizontal pressure and they are also formed when rock is heated up by the intrusion of hot molten rock called magma from the Earths interior. The study of rocks provides information about the temperatures and pressures that occur at great depths within the Earths crust. Some examples of rocks are gneiss, slate, marble, schist. Metamorphic minerals are those that only at the high temperatures and pressures associated with the process of metamorphism. These minerals, known as index minerals, include sillimanite, kyanite, staurolite, andalusite, and some garnet. Other minerals, such as olivines, pyroxenes, amphiboles, micas, feldspars, and quartz, may be found in metamorphic rocks and these minerals formed during the crystallization of igneous rocks. They are stable at temperatures and pressures and may remain chemically unchanged during the metamorphic process. However, all minerals are only within certain limits. The change in the size of the rock during the process of metamorphism is called recrystallization. Both high temperatures and pressures contribute to recrystallization, high temperatures allow the atoms and ions in solid crystals to migrate, thus reorganizing the crystals, while high pressures cause solution of the crystals within the rock at their point of contact. The layering within metamorphic rocks is called foliation, and it occurs when a rock is being shortened along one axis during recrystallization. This causes the platy or elongated crystals of minerals, such as mica and chlorite and this results in a banded, or foliated rock, with the bands showing the colors of the minerals that formed them. Textures are separated into foliated and non-foliated categories, foliated rock is a product of differential stress that deforms the rock in one plane, sometimes creating a plane of cleavage. For example, slate is a metamorphic rock, originating from shale
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Water resources
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Water resources are sources of water that are potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities, the majority of human uses require fresh water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is water, slightly over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air. The framework for allocating resources to water users is known as water rights. Surface water is water in a river, lake or fresh water wetland, surface water is naturally replenished by precipitation and naturally lost through discharge to the oceans, evaporation, evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge. All of these factors affect the proportions of water loss. Human activities can have a large and sometimes devastating impact on these factors, humans often increase storage capacity by constructing reservoirs and decrease it by draining wetlands. Humans often increase runoff quantities and velocities by paving areas and channelizing the stream flow, the total quantity of water available at any given time is an important consideration. Some human water users have an intermittent need for water, for example, many farms require large quantities of water in the spring, and no water at all in the winter. To supply such a farm with water, a water system may require a large storage capacity to collect water throughout the year. Other users have a continuous need for water, such as a plant that requires water for cooling. To supply such a plant with water, a surface water system only needs enough storage capacity to fill in when average stream flow is below the power plants need. Nevertheless, over the term the average rate of precipitation within a watershed is the upper bound for average consumption of natural surface water from that watershed. Natural surface water can be augmented by importing water from another watershed through a canal or pipeline. It can also be artificially augmented from any of the sources listed here. Humans can also cause water to be lost through pollution. Brazil is the estimated to have the largest supply of fresh water in the world, followed by Russia
25.
Pistacia
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Pistacia is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae. Pistacia plants are shrubs and small trees growing to 5–15 m tall, the leaves are alternate, pinnately compound, and can be either evergreen or deciduous depending on species. All species are dioecious, but monoecious individuals of Pistacia atlantica have been noted, the genus is estimated to be about 80 million years old. It is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Anacardiaceae, the plants are dioecious, have male and female trees independently, a viable population should have both genders. The Pistacia species are vicarious Anacardiaceae with few species outside the Old World, many plant species are adapted to desert or summer drought typical of Mediterranean climate, so have a high tolerance to saline soil. They grow well in water containing up to 3.0 to 4. 0% of soluble salts and they are quite resilient in their ecological requirements, and can survive in temperatures ranging from −10 °C in winter to 45 °C in summer. They prefer places oriented toward the sun and well-drained soil, though very hardy and drought resistance, Pistacia species grow slowly and only begin to bear fruit after about seven to 10 years from planting, obtaining full development only after 15 to 20 years. The fruit ripens in the Mediterranean from August, only female trees have fruit, although some species prefer moderate humidity, they do not grow well in high humidity conditions. They are susceptible to rot, molds, and fungi, and parasites attack if they receive too much water. They require a period of each year for proper development. Their leaves are bright green and leathery, with three to 9 leaflets. The leaves are alternate, compound, and paripinnate, the flowers are unisexual, apetalous, and grouped in clusters. The flowers range from purple to green, the fruit is a drupe, generally unpalatable to humans, the size of a pea, and red to brown in color, depending on the degree of maturation. The seeds do not have endosperm, the commercial species of pistachio has larger fruits and is edible. The plants emit a bitter, resinous or medicative smell, which in species is very intense. Some species develop galls that occur in the leaves and leaflets after the bite of insects, although marred by the presence of galls, they are very vigorous and resistant plants that survive in degraded areas where other species have been eliminated. They multiply by seeds, stolons, and root shoots, various species hybridize easily between them, and hybrid plants are difficult to identify. Some tree species can exist as small bushes and shrubs due to the extremes of their habitat, adverse conditions, Pistacia lentiscus is a very common plant related to Pistacia terebinthus with which it hybridizes
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Ayla (city)
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Ayla was a medieval Islamic city established at the site of present-day Aqaba in Jordan. It was the first Islamic city founded outside of the Arabian Peninsula and its ruins are located northwest of the current city center. The city was founded around the year 650 by the Caliph Uthman ibn Affan, baldwin I of Jerusalem took over the city in 1116 without much resistance. The center of the city moved to 500 meters along the coast to the south, around the Mamluk fort. Ayla took advantage of its key position as an important step on the road to India and Arab spices, the city is also mentioned in several stories of the Arabian Nights. The work of US-Jordanian excavations were conducted in 1986 by the University of Chicago, besides the remains in place, many discoveries are at the Aqaba Archaeological Museum and the Jordan Archaeological Museum, in Amman. The city was inscribed in a rectangle 170 ×145 fortified meters, with walls 2.6 meters thick and 4.5 meters high. The city had four gates on all four sides, defining two main lines intersecting at the center, the door of Egypt, the Damascus Gate, the door of the Hejaz and the door of the Sea. The intersection of two channels was indicated by a tetra pylon, which was transformed into a luxury residential building decorated with frescoes of the tenth century. This type of structure, called MSIR, is typical of early Islamic fortified settlements. The city enclosed in a square or rectangle also included fortified residence, mosque northeast, the city was notably described by the geographer Shams Eddin Muqaddasi. There is also a similar in the ancient cities of Al-Fustat Egyptian and Iraqi Al Basrah, Ayla is accessible during the day. The walls of the ruins in some places can reach three meters high, there is a wadi that passes through the site. Aqaba The beach of history Museum with No Frontiers, Ayla Aqaba, town plan World Port source-Aqaba The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago - Aqaba Project
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Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
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Timna Valley
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The Timna Valley is located in southern Israel in the southwestern Arabah, approximately 30 kilometres north of the Gulf of Aqaba and the town of Eilat. The area is rich in ore and has been mined since the 5th millennium BCE. There is controversy whether the mines were active during the Kingdom of Israel, a large section of the valley, containing ancient remnants of copper mining and ancient worship, is encompassed in a recreation park. In July 2011, the Israeli government approved the construction of an international airport, copper has been mined in the area since the 5th or 6th millennium BCE. The copper was used for ornaments, but more importantly for stone cutting, as saws, scientific attention and public interest was aroused in the 1930s, when Nelson Glueck attributed the copper mining at Timna to King Solomon and named the site King Solomons Mines. His excavation and restoration of the allowed for the reconstruction of Timna Valley’s long and complex history of copper production. The modern state of Israel also began mining copper on the edge of the valley in 1955. The mine was reopened in 1980, the mine was named Timnah after a Biblical chief. Timna Valley is notable for its uncommon stone formations and sand, although predominantly red, the sand can be yellow, orange, grey, dark brown, or black. Light green or blue sand occurs near the copper mines, water and wind erosion have created several unusual formations that are only found in similar climates. The most striking and well-known formation in Timna Valley are Solomons Pillars, the pillars are natural structures that were formed by centuries of water erosion through fractures in the sandstone cliff until it became a series of distinct, pillar-shaped structures. American archaeologist Nelson Glueck caused a surge of attention for the pillars in the 1930s and he claimed that the pillars were related to King Solomon and gave them the name Solomons Pillars. Although his hypothesis lacked support and has not been accepted, the name stuck, the pillars are known as the backdrop for evening concerts and dance performances the park presents in the summer. The Mushroom is a monolithic, mushroom-shaped, red sandstone rock formation known as a hoodoo. The mushroom shape was caused by wind, humidity, and water erosion over centuries, the Mushroom is surrounded by copper ore smelting sites from between the 14th and 12th centuries BCE. The Arches are natural arches formed by erosion, as well, Arches are not as rare as Solomons Pillars and the Mushroom, and similar structures can be found in elsewhere in the world. The walking trail goes to the Arches also goes past the copper mine shafts. Beno Rothenberg, the excavator of the Timna Valley area, excavated a small Egyptian temple dedicated to Hathor
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Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
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Fourth Dynasty of Egypt
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The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt is characterized as a golden age of the Old Kingdom. Dynasty IV lasted from c. 2613 to 2494 BC and it was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other countries is documented. Dynasties III, IV, V and VI are often combined under the title the Old Kingdom. The capital at time was Memphis. The Fourth Dynasty heralded the height of the pyramid-building age, the relative peace of the Third Dynasty allowed the Dynasty IV rulers the leisure to explore more artistic and cultural pursuits. Sneferu’s building experiments led to the evolution from the mastaba styled step pyramids to the smooth sided “true” pyramids, no other period in Egypt’s history equaled Dynasty IV’s architectural accomplishments. Each of the rulers of this dynasty commissioned at least one pyramid to serve as a tomb or cenotaph, the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty ruled for approximately 120 years, from c. 2613 to 2494 BC. The names in the table are taken from Dodson and Hilton and he also constructed a number of smaller step pyramids, making him the most prolific pyramid builder of the era. It is said that Sneferu had more stone and brick moved than any other pharaoh, sneferus chief wife was Hetepheres I, his half-sister and the mother of his son Khufu. His other two wives bore him more children, a well-liked ruler, Sneferu bolstered the power of the ruling family line by giving official titles and positions to relatives. He maintained control over the nobility by keeping a tight rein on lands and he conducted military excursions into Sinai, Nubia, Libya, and began trade arrangements with Lebanon for the acquisition of cedar. Surviving from this era are the records of Egyptian contact with her neighbors. They are recorded on the Palermo stone, information carved on the stone pre-dates and antedates this dynasty. Objects dating to the reign of Khafre have been found farther away, at Ebla. Khufu is the ruler who is known in Greek as Χέοψ = Cheops and his son is Khafre and his grandson is Menkaure. All of these rulers achieved lasting fame in the construction of their pyramids at Giza. In fact, recent excavations outside the Wall of the Crow by Dr. Mark Lehner have uncovered a city which seems to have housed, fed. Some records indicate that each household was responsible for providing a worker for civic projects, civic duties were not necessarily building projects, there were duties for the temples, libraries, and festivals as well, and both men and women filled some of the positions
31.
Thebes, Egypt
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Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset, was an ancient Egyptian city located east of the Nile about 800 kilometers south of the Mediterranean. Its ruins lie within the modern Egyptian city of Luxor, Thebes was the main city of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome. It was close to Nubia and the desert, with their valuable mineral resources. It was a center and the wealthiest city of ancient Egypt at its heyday. The Ancient Egyptians originally knew Thebes as Wose or Wase A was was the scepter of the pharaohs, a staff with an animals head. Thebes is the Latinized form of the Greek Thebai, the form of the Demotic Egyptian Ta-pe. This was the name not for the city itself but for the Karnak temple complex on the northern east bank of the city. As early as Homers Iliad, the Greeks distinguished the Egyptian Thebes as Thebes of the Hundred Gates, as opposed to the Thebes of the Seven Gates in Boeotia, from the end of the New Kingdom, Thebes was known in Egyptian as Niwt-Imn, the City of Amun. Amun was the chief of the Theban Triad of gods whose other members were Mut and this name appears in the Bible as the Nōʼ ʼĀmôn of the Book of Nahum and probably also as the No mentioned in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. In the interpretatio graeca, Amun was seen as a form of Zeus, the name was therefore translated into Greek as Diospolis, the City of Zeus. To distinguish it from the other cities by this name. The Greek names came into use after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. Thebes was located along the banks of the Nile River in the part of Upper Egypt about 800 km from the Delta. It was built largely on the plains of the Nile Valley which follows a great bend of the Nile. As a natural consequence, the city was laid in a northeast-southwest axis parallel to the river channel. Thebes had an area of 93 km2 which included parts of the Theban Hills in the west that culminates at the sacred 420-meter al-Qurn, in the east lies the mountainous Eastern Desert with its wadis draining into the valley. Significant of these wadis is Wadi Hammamat near Thebes and it was used as an overland trade route going to the Red Sea coast. In the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, Thebes was found to have neighboring towns such as Per-Hathor, Madu, Djerty, Iuny, Sumenu, according to George Modelski, Thebes had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2000 BC
32.
Frankincense
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The English word is derived from Old French franc encens. There are four species of Boswellia that produce true frankincense. Resin from each of the four is available in various grades, the grades depend on the time of harvesting, the resin is hand-sorted for quality. Frankincense is tapped from the scraggy but hardy trees by slashing the bark, which is called striping and these hardened resins are called tears. There are several species and varieties of trees, each producing a slightly different type of resin. Differences in soil and climate create even more diversity of the resin, Boswellia sacra trees are considered unusual for their ability to grow in environments so unforgiving that they sometimes grow out of solid rock. The initial means of attachment to the rock is unknown, but is accomplished by a bulbous swelling of the trunk. This growth prevents it from being ripped from the rock during violent storms and this feature is slight or absent in trees grown in rocky soil or gravel. The trees start producing resin when they are eight to 10 years old. Tapping is done two to three times a year with the final taps producing the best tears due to their higher aromatic terpene, sesquiterpene and diterpene content, generally speaking, the more opaque resins are the best quality. Fine resin is produced in Somalia, from which the Roman Catholic Church purchases most of its stock, recent studies have indicated that frankincense tree populations are declining, partly due to over-exploitation. Heavily tapped trees produce seeds that germinate at only 16% while seeds of trees that had not been tapped germinate at more than 80%, in addition, burning, grazing, and attacks by the longhorn beetle have reduced the tree population. Conversion of frankincense woodlands to agriculture is also a major threat, Frankincense has been traded on the Arabian Peninsula, in North Africa, and Somalia for more than 5000 years. A mural depicting sacks of frankincense traded from the Land of Punt adorns the walls of the temple of ancient Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut, who died circa 1458 BC. Frankincense was one of the consecrated incenses described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud used in Ketoret ceremonies and it was offered on a specialized incense altar in the time when the Tabernacle was located in the First and Second Temples. It is mentioned in the Book of Exodus 30,34 and it was one of the ingredients in the perfume of the sanctuary, and was used as an accompaniment of the meal-offering. It was also mentioned as a commodity in trade from Sheba, when burnt it emitted a fragrant odor, and the incense was a symbol of the Divine name and an emblem of prayer. It was often associated with myrrh, a specially pure kind, lebhonah zakkah, was presented with the showbread
33.
Myrrh
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Myrrh is a natural gum or resin extracted from a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus Commiphora. Myrrh resin has been used throughout history as a perfume, incense, Myrrh mixed with wine can also be ingested. When a tree wound penetrates through the bark and into the sapwood, Myrrh gum, like frankincense, is such a resin. When people harvest myrrh, they wound the trees repeatedly to bleed them of the gum, Myrrh gum is waxy and coagulates quickly. After the harvest, the gum becomes hard and glossy, the gum is yellowish and may be either clear or opaque. It darkens deeply as it ages, and white streaks emerge, Myrrh gum is commonly harvested from the species Commiphora myrrha. Another commonly used name, Commiphora molmol, is now considered a synonym of Commiphora myrrha, Commiphora myrrha is native to parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea and eastern Ethiopia. Meetiga, the trade-name of Arabian Myrrh, is brittle and gummy than the Somalian variety. The oleo gum resins of a number of other Commiphora species are used as perfumes, medicines. These myrrh-like resins are known as opopanax, balsam, bdellium, guggul bisabol, fragrant myrrh beads are made from the crushed seeds of Detarium microcarpum, an unrelated West African tree. These beads are worn by married women in Mali as multiple strands around the hips. The name myrrh is also applied to the potherb Myrrhis odorata, liquid myrrh, or stacte, written about by Pliny, was an ingredient of Jewish holy incense, and was formerly greatly valued but cannot now be identified in todays markets. The word myrrh derives from the Aramaic ܡܪܝܪܐ, and Arabic مر ، meaning bitter, in pharmacy, myrrh is used as an antiseptic in mouthwashes, gargles, and toothpastes. Myrrh is currently used in some liniments and healing salves that may be applied to abrasions, Myrrh has also been recommended as an analgesic for toothaches and can be used in liniment for bruises, aches, and sprains. Myrrh is an ingredient of tooth powders. Myrrh and borax in tincture can be used as a mouth-wash, a compound tincture, or horse tincture, using myrrh is used in veterinary practice for healing wounds. Myrrh gum is used for indigestion, ulcers, colds, cough, asthma, lung congestion, arthritis pain, research data indicated that the extract killed all of the cancer cells in laboratory dishes. In traditional Chinese medicine, myrrh is classified as bitter and spicy and it is said to have special efficacy on the heart, liver, and spleen meridians as well as blood-moving powers to purge stagnant blood from the uterus
34.
Ethiopia
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Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With nearly 100 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world and it occupies a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres, and its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa. Some of the oldest evidence for modern humans has been found in Ethiopia. It is widely considered as the region from modern humans first set out for the Middle East. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era, tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BC, Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history. During the first centuries AD, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region, subsequently, many African nations adopted the colors of Ethiopias flag following their independence. It was the first independent African member of the 20th-century League of Nations, Ethiopias ancient Geez script, also known as Ethiopic, is one of the oldest alphabets still in use in the world. The Ethiopian calendar, which is seven years and three months behind the Gregorian calendar, co-exists alongside the Borana calendar. A slight majority of the population adheres to Christianity, while around a third follows Islam, the country is the site of the Migration to Abyssinia and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash. A substantial population of Ethiopian Jews, known as Bete Israel, resided in Ethiopia until the 1980s, Ethiopia is a multilingual nation with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, the four largest of which are the Oromiffa, Amhara, Somali, and Tigrayans. Most people in the country speak Afroasiatic languages of the Cushitic or Semitic branches, additionally, Omotic languages are spoken by ethnic minority groups inhabiting the southern regions. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by the nations Nilotic ethnic minorities. Ethiopia is the place of origin for the coffee bean which originated from the place called Kefa and it is a land of natural contrasts, with its vast fertile West, jungles, and numerous rivers, and the worlds hottest settlement of Dallol in its north. The Ethiopian Highlands are Africas largest continuous mountain ranges, and Sof Omar Caves contain Africas largest cave, Ethiopia has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. Ethiopia is one of the members of the UN, the Group of 24, the Non-Aligned Movement, G-77. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ethiopia suffered from civil wars, the country has begun to recover recently however, and now has the largest economy in East Africa and Central Africa. According to Global Fire Power, Ethiopia has the 42nd most powerful military in the world, the origin of the word Ethiopia is uncertain
35.
Land of Punt
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The Land of Punt, also called Pwenet, or Pwene by the ancient Egyptians, was an ancient kingdom. A trading partner of Egypt, it was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory, the region is known from ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to it. Some biblical scholars have identified it with the land of Put. At times Punt is referred to as Ta netjer, the Land of the God, the exact location of Punt is still debated by historians. Most scholars today believe Punt was situated to the southeast of Egypt, most likely in the region of modern Djibouti, Eritrea, northeast Ethiopia, Somalia. However, some scholars point instead to a range of ancient inscriptions that locate Punt in the Arabian Peninsula and it is also possible that the territory covered both the Horn of Africa and Southern Arabia. Puntland, the Somali administrative region situated at the extremity of the Horn of Africa, is named in reference to the Land of Punt, the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty. However, gold from Punt is recorded as having been in Egypt as early as the time of Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty, subsequently, there were more expeditions to Punt in the Sixth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Eighteenth dynasties of Egypt. In the Twelfth Dynasty, trade with Punt was celebrated in literature in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor. In the reign of Mentuhotep III, an officer named Hannu organized one or more voyages to Punt, trading missions of the 12th dynasty pharaohs Senusret I, Amenemhat II and Amenemhat IV had also successfully navigated their way to and from the mysterious land of Punt. Hatshepsut personally made the most famous ancient Egyptian expedition that sailed to Punt, a report of that five-ship voyage survives on reliefs in Hatshepsuts mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. In reality, Nehsis expedition was a trading mission to a land, Punt. Moreover, Nehsis visit to Punt was not inordinately brave since he was accompanied by at least five shiploads of marines and greeted warmly by the chief of Punt and his immediate family. The Puntites traded not only in their own produce of incense, ebony and short-horned cattle and they will load their ships to the satisfaction of their hearts with trees of green incense, and all the good things of the land. Hatshepsuts 18th dynasty successors, such as Thutmose III and Amenhotep III also continued the Egyptian tradition of trading with Punt, the trade with Punt continued into the start of the 20th dynasty before terminating prior to the end of Egypts New Kingdom. They were loaded, in travelling overland, upon asses and upon men and they were sent forward downstream, arriving in festivity, bringing tribute into the royal presence. After the end of the New Kingdom period, Punt became an unreal and fabulous land of myths, at times, the ancient Egyptians called Punt Ta netjer, meaning Gods Land. This referred to the fact that it was among the regions of the Sun God, that is and these eastern regions resources included products used in temples, notably incense
36.
Bitumen
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Asphalt, also known as bitumen is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in deposits or may be a refined product. Until the 20th century, the term asphaltum was also used, the word is derived from the Ancient Greek ἄσφαλτος ásphaltos. The primary use of asphalt/bitumen is in construction, where it is used as the glue or binder mixed with aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete. Its other main uses are for bituminous waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt, the terms asphalt and bitumen are often used interchangeably to mean both natural and manufactured forms of the substance. In American English, asphalt is the carefully refined residue from the process of selected crude oils. Outside the United States, the product is often called bitumen, geologists often prefer the term bitumen. Common usage often refers to forms of asphalt/bitumen as tar. Naturally occurring asphalt/bitumen is sometimes specified by the crude bitumen. Its viscosity is similar to that of cold molasses while the material obtained from the distillation of crude oil boiling at 525 °C is sometimes referred to as refined bitumen. The Canadian province of Alberta has most of the reserves of natural bitumen, covering 142,000 square kilometres. Additionally, most natural bitumens contain organosulfur compounds, resulting in a sulfur content of up to 4%. Nickel and vanadium are found in the <10 ppm level, as is typical of some petroleum, the substance is soluble in carbon disulfide. It is commonly modelled as a colloid, with asphaltenes as the dispersed phase, and it is almost impossible to separate and identify all the different molecules of asphalt, because the number of molecules with different chemical structure is extremely large. Asphalt/bitumen can sometimes be confused with tar, which is a visually similar black. During the early and mid-20th century when town gas was produced, coal tar was a readily available byproduct, the addition of tar to macadam roads led to the word tarmac, which is now used in common parlance to refer to road-making materials. However, since the 1970s, when natural gas succeeded town gas, other examples of this confusion include the La Brea Tar Pits and the Canadian oil sands, both of which actually contain natural bitumen rather than tar. Pitch is another term used at times to refer to asphalt/bitumen
37.
Natron
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Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate and around 17% sodium bicarbonate along with small quantities of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate. Natron is white to colourless when pure, varying to gray or yellow with impurities, Natron deposits are sometimes found in saline lake beds which arose in arid environments. Throughout history natron has had practical applications that continue today in the wide range of modern uses of its constituent mineral components. In modern mineralogy the term natron has come to only the sodium carbonate decahydrate that makes up most of the historical salt. The English word natron is a French cognate derived from the Spanish natrón through Latin natrium and this derives from the Ancient Egyptian word nṯry natron. Natron refers to Wadi El Natrun or Natron Valley in Egypt, the modern chemical symbol for sodium, Na, is an abbreviation of that elements New Latin name natrium, which was derived from natron. Historical natron was harvested directly as a mixture from dry lake beds in ancient Egypt. Blended with oil, it was a form of soap. It softens water while removing oil and grease, undiluted, natron was a cleanser for the teeth and an early mouthwash. The mineral was mixed into early antiseptics for wounds and minor cuts, Natron can be used to dry and preserve fish and meat. It was also an ancient household insecticide, was used for making leather, the mineral was used during mummification ceremonies in ancient Egypt because it absorbs water and behaves as a drying agent. Moreover, when exposed to moisture, the carbonate in natron increases pH, in some cultures, natron was thought to enhance spiritual safety for both the living and the dead. Natron was added to oil to make a smokeless fuel. The Pyramid Texts describe how natron pellets were used as offerings in the rites for the deceased pharaoh. The ceremony required two different kinds of natron sourced from northern and southern Egypt, Natron is an ingredient for making a distinct color called Egyptian blue, and also as the flux in Egyptian faience. It was used along with sand and lime in ceramic and glass-making by the Romans, the mineral was also employed as a flux to solder precious metals together. Most of natrons uses both in the home and by industry were gradually replaced with closely related compounds and minerals. Natrons detergent properties are now supplied by soda ash, the mixtures chief compound ingredient
38.
Dead Sea
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The Dead Sea, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and Palestine to the west. Its surface and shores are 430.5 metres below sea level, the Dead Sea is 304 m deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. With 34. 2% salinity, it is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean and this salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea is 50 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide at its widest point and it lies in the Jordan Rift Valley and its main tributary is the Jordan River. The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years and it was one of the worlds first health resorts, and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics, the Dead Sea water has a density of 1.24 kg/litre, which makes swimming similar to floating. The Dead Sea is receding at an alarming rate, multiple canals and pipelines were proposed to reduce its recession, which had begun causing many problems. The Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance project, carried out by Jordan, will provide water to neighboring countries, the first phase of the project is scheduled to begin in 2018 and be completed in 2021. In Hebrew, the Dead Sea is Yām ha-Melaḥ, meaning sea of salt, the Bible uses this term alongside two others, the Sea of the Arabah, and the Eastern Sea. The designation Dead Sea never appears in the Bible, in prose sometimes the term Yām ha-Māvet is used, due to the scarcity of aquatic life there. In Arabic the Dead Sea is called al-Bahr al-Mayyit, or less commonly baḥrᵘ lūṭᵃ, another historic name in Arabic was the Sea of Zoʼar, after a nearby town in biblical times. The Greeks called it Lake Asphaltites, the Dead Sea is an endorheic lake located in the Jordan Rift Valley, a geographic feature formed by the Dead Sea Transform. This left lateral-moving transform fault lies along the plate boundary between the African Plate and the Arabian Plate. It runs between the East Anatolian Fault zone in Turkey and the end of the Red Sea Rift offshore of the southern tip of Sinai. It is here that the Upper Jordan River/Sea of Galilee/Lower Jordan River water system comes to an end. The Jordan River is the major water source flowing into the Dead Sea, although there are small perennial springs under and around the Dead Sea, forming pools. The Mujib River, biblical Arnon, is one the larger sources of the Dead Sea other than the Jordan. The Wadi Mujib valley,420 m below the sea level in the southern of Jordan valley, is a biosphere reserve, other more substantial sources are Wadi Darajeh /Nahal Dragot, and Nahal Arugot
39.
Linen
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Linen /ˈlɪnᵻn/ is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is laborious to manufacture, but the fiber is very absorbent, many products are made of linen, aprons, bags, towels, napkins, bed linens, tablecloths, runners, chair covers, and mens and womens wear. The word linen is of West Germanic origin and cognate to the Latin name for the plant, linum. This word history has given rise to a number of terms in English, most notably line. Textiles in a linen weave texture, even made of cotton, hemp. Such fabrics generally also have their own names, for example fine cotton yarn in a linen-style weave is called Madapolam. The collective term linens is still used generically to describe a class of woven or knitted bed, bath, table. The inner layer of fine composite cloth garments was traditionally made of linen, Linen textiles appear to be some of the oldest in the world, their history goes back many thousands of years. Fragments of straw, seeds, fibers, yarns, and various types of dating to about 8000 BC have been found in Swiss lake dwellings. Dyed flax fibers found in a cave in Georgia suggest the use of woven linen fabrics from wild flax may date back even earlier to 36,000 BP. Linen was sometimes used as currency in ancient Egypt, egyptian mummies were wrapped in linen as a symbol of light and purity, and as a display of wealth. Some of these fabrics, woven from hand-spun yarns, were fine for their day. In 1923 the German city Bielefeld issued banknotes printed on linen, today, linen is usually an expensive textile produced in relatively small quantities. It has a long staple relative to cotton and other natural fibers, the word linen is derived from the Latin for the flax plant, which is linum, and the earlier Greek λίνον. The discovery of dyed flax fibers in a cave in Georgia dated to thirty-six thousand years ago suggests that ancient people used wild flax fibers to create linen-like fabrics from an early date, in ancient Mesopotamia, flax was domesticated and linen was first produced. It was used mainly by the class of the society. The Sumerian poem of the courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi, translated by Samuel Noah Kramer and Diane Wolkstein and published in 1983, mentions flax and linen. It opens with briefly listing the steps of preparing linen from flax, in a form of questions, in ancient Egypt, linen was used for mummification and for burial shrouds
40.
Byblos
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Byblos, in Arabic Jubayl, is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon. It is one of the cities suggested as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gubal was a Canaanite city during the Bronze Age, at time it also appears as Gubla in the Amarna letters. During the Iron Age the city is called Gebal in Phoenician and it was much later referred to as Gibelet, during the Crusades. The citys Canaanite/Phoenician name can be derived from gb, meaning well or origin, and El, the present-day city is known by the Arabic name Jubayl or Jbeil, a direct descendant of the Canaanite name. However, the Arabic name is most likely derived from the Phoenician word GBL meaning boundary, district or mountain peak, in the Ugaritic GBL can mean mountain, the Greek Βύβλος, whence we get our Byblos, was the interpretation of Phoenician
41.
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
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The text has been ascribed to different dates between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE, but a mid-1st-century date is now the most commonly accepted. The Erythraean Sea, or in modern spelling, Eritrean Sea is presently a Greek name for the Red Sea, to the ancient Greeks it included the Indian Ocean, the work consists of 66 chapters, most of them about the length of a long paragraph in English. For instance, the short Chapter 9 reads in its entirety, the imports to this are as aforesaid, and from it likewise are exported the same goods, and fragrant gum called mokrotou. The inhabitants who trade here are more peaceful, in many cases, the description of places is sufficiently accurate to identify their present locations, for others, there is considerable debate. The description of the Indian coast mentions the Ganges River clearly, yet after that is somewhat garbled, the Periplus says that a direct sailing route from the Red Sea to the Indian peninsula across the open ocean was discovered by Hippalus. Many trade goods are mentioned in the Periplus, but some of the words naming trade goods are seen nowhere else in ancient literature, for example, one trade good mentioned is lakkos chromatinos. The name lakkos appears nowhere else in ancient Greek or Roman literature, some other named trade goods remain obscure. In the 10th-century manuscript, the text is attributed to Arrian, the Periplus was edited by Sigmund Gelen and first published in a modern edition by Hieronymus Froben in 1533. One historical analysis, published by Schoff in 1912, narrowed the date of the text to 60 CE. Schoff additionally provides an analysis as to the texts original authorship, and arrives at the conclusion that the author must have been a Greek in Egypt. By Schoffs calculations, this would have been during the time of Tiberius Claudius Balbilus, john Hill maintains that the Periplus can now be confidently dated to between 40 and 70 AD and, probably, between AD40 and 50. Because of the absence of any account of the journey up the Nile and across the desert from Coptos, ships from Himyar regularly traveled the East African coast. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes the empire of Himyar and Saba, regrouped under a single ruler Charibael. The Frankincense kingdom is described further east along the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, the ruler of this kingdom is named Eleazus, or Eleazar, thought to correspond to King Iliazz Yalit I,27. Inland from this lies the metropolis Sabbatha, in which the King lives. All the frankincense produced in the country is brought by camels to that place to be stored, and to Cana on rafts held up by inflated skins after the manner of the country, and in boats. And this place has a trade also with the ports, with Barygaza and Scythia and Ommana. Ras Hafun in northern Somalia is believed to be the location of the ancient trade center of Opone, Ancient Egyptian, Roman and Persian Gulf pottery has been recovered from the site by an archaeological team from the University of Michigan
42.
Edom
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Edom is the name of a country and a people located initially in Transjordan, between Ammon to the north, the Dead Sea and the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian desert to the south and east. Edom is a used in written sources relating to the late Bronze Age and to the entire Iron Age in the Levant, such as the Hebrew Bible. In classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to an area in the same general region. Edom is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, but also in a list of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I from c.1215 BC, the Edomites, who have been identified archaeologically, were a Semitic people who probably arrived in the region around the 14th century BC. Archaeological investigation showed that the country flourished between the 13th and 8th centuries BC, and was destroyed after a period of decline in the 6th century BC by the Babylonians. Once pushed out of their territory, the Edomites settled during the Persian period in an area comprising the hills of Judea down to the area north of Beer Sheva. Here the people appear under the form of their old name, as Idumeans or Idumaeans, and their new territory is called Idumea or Idumaea. The Hebrew word Edom means red, and is derived from the name of its founder, whose name was Esau. Later, as an adult, he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for red pottage. The Tanakh describes the Edomites as descendants of Esau, the Edomites may have been connected with the Shasu and Shutu, nomadic raiders mentioned in Egyptian sources. The earliest Iron Age settlements—possibly copper mining camps—date to the 9th century BC, settlement intensified by the late 8th century BC and the main sites so far excavated have been dated between the 8th and 6th centuries BC. This occurred after the Hebrew prophet Isaiah had earlier quoted Yahweh as pronouncing that Edom was marked for destruction, another scriptural reference from Ezekiel chapter 35 foretells that Edom will be completely destroyed. According to the Egyptian inscriptions, the Aduma at times extended their possessions to the borders of Egypt, after the conquest of Judah by the Babylonians, Edomites settled in the region of Hebron. They prospered in this new country, called by the Greeks and Romans Idumaea or Idumea, the Edomites original country, according to the Hebrew Bible, stretched from the Sinai peninsula as far as Kadesh Barnea. Southward it reached as far as Eilat, which was the seaport of Edom, on the north of Edom was the territory of Moab. The boundary between Moab and Edom was the Wadi Zered, the ancient capital of Edom was Bozrah. According to Genesis, Esaus descendants settled in land after displacing the Horites. It was also called the land of Seir, Mount Seir appears to have been identified with them
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Israel
אֵילַת [eˈlat]; Arabic: إيلات, translit. 'aylaat or Arabic: أيلة, translit. 'aylat, also Arabic: أم الرشراش, translit. 'Um 'al-Rashrash) is Israel's southernmost city, a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aqaba. The city's beaches, coral reef, nightlife and desert landscapes make it a popular destination for domestic and international tourism.
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Acapulco, Mexico[56]
Antibes, France[57][58]
Arica, Chile[57][59]
Benidorm, Spain[60]
Durban, South Africa[57][61]
Kamen, Germany[62]
Kampen, Netherlands[57]
Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
Los Angeles, United States[57][63]
Natal, Brasil
Piešťany, Slovakia[64]
Serres, Greece
Smolyan, Bulgaria[57][65]
Sopron, Hungary[66]
Toronto, Canada[58]
Ushuaia, Argentina[58]
Yalta, Ukraine
Yinchuan, China
