Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville is a city in the U. S. state of Tennessee, the county seat of Knox County. The city had an estimated population of 186,239 in 2016 and a population of 178,874 as of the 2010 census, making it the state's third largest city after Nashville and Memphis. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which, in 2016, was 868,546, up 0.9 percent, or 7,377 people, from to 2015. The KMSA is, in turn, the central component of the Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette Combined Statistical Area, which, in 2013, had a population of 1,096,961. First settled in 1786, Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee; the city struggled with geographic isolation throughout the early 19th century. The arrival of the railroad in 1855 led to an economic boom. During the Civil War, the city was bitterly divided over the secession issue, was occupied alternately by both Confederate and Union armies. Following the war, Knoxville grew as a major wholesaling and manufacturing center.
The city's economy stagnated after the 1920's as the manufacturing sector collapsed, the downtown area declined and city leaders became entrenched in partisan political fights. Hosting the 1982 World's Fair helped reinvigorate the city, revitalization initiatives by city leaders and private developers have had major successes in spurring growth in the city the downtown area. Knoxville is the home of the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee, whose sports teams, called the "Volunteers" or "Vols", are popular in the surrounding area. Knoxville is home to the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Tennessee Supreme Court's courthouse for East Tennessee and the corporate headquarters of several national and regional companies; as one of the largest cities in the Appalachian region, Knoxville has positioned itself in recent years as a repository of Appalachian culture and is one of the gateways to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The first people to form substantial settlements in what is now Knoxville arrived during the Woodland period.
One of the oldest artificial structures in Knoxville is a burial mound constructed during the early Mississippian culture period. The earthwork mound is now surrounded by the University of Tennessee campus. Other prehistoric sites include an Early Woodland habitation area at the confluence of the Tennessee River and Knob Creek, Dallas Phase Mississippian villages at Post Oak Island, at Bussell Island. By the 18th century, the Cherokee had become the dominant tribe in the East Tennessee region, although they were at war with the Creek and Shawnee; the Cherokee people called the Knoxville area kuwanda'talun'yi, which means "Mulberry Place." Most Cherokee habitation in the area was concentrated in the Overhill settlements along the Little Tennessee River, southwest of Knoxville. The first white traders and explorers were recorded as arriving in the Tennessee Valley in the late 17th century, though there is significant evidence that Hernando de Soto visited Bussell Island in 1540; the first major recorded Euro-American presence in the Knoxville area was the Timberlake Expedition, which passed through the confluence of the Holston and French Broad into the Tennessee River in December 1761.
Henry Timberlake, en route to the Over hill settlements along the Little Tennessee River, recalled being pleasantly surprised by the deep waters of the Tennessee after having struggled down the shallow Holston for several weeks. The end of the French and Indian War and confusion brought about by the American Revolution led to a drastic increase in Euro-American settlement west of the Appalachians. By the 1780's, white settlers were established in the Holston and French Broad valleys; the U. S. Congress ordered all illegal settlers out with little success; as settlers continued to trickle into Cherokee lands, tensions between the settlers and the Cherokee rose steadily. In 1786, James White, a Revolutionary War officer, his friend James Connor built White's Fort near the mouth of First Creek, on land White had purchased three years earlier. In 1790, White's son-in-law, Charles McClung—who had arrived from Pennsylvania the previous year—surveyed White's holdings between First Creek and Second Creek for the establishment of a town.
McClung drew up 64 0.5-acre lots. The waterfront was set aside for a town common. Two lots were set aside for a graveyard. Four lots were set aside for a school; that school was chartered as Blount College and it served as the starting point for the University of Tennessee, which uses Blount College's founding date of 1794, as its own. In 1790, President George Washington appointed North Carolina surveyor William Blount governor of the newly created Territory South of the River Ohio. One of Blount's first tasks was to meet with the Cherokee and establish territorial boundaries and resolve the issue of illegal settlers; this he accomplished immediately with the Treaty of Holston, negotiated and signed at White's Fort in 1791. Blount wanted to place the territorial capital at the confluence of the Clinch River and Tennessee River, but when the Cherokee refused to cede this land, Blount chose White's Fort, which McClung had surveyed the previous year. Blount named the new capital Knoxville after Revolutionary War general and Secretary of War Henry Knox, who at the time was Blount's immediate superior.
Problems arose from the Holston Treaty. Blount believed that he had "purchased" mu
Monroe, Louisiana
Monroe is the eighth-largest city in the U. S. state of Louisiana. It is the parish seat of Ouachita Parish. In the official 2010 census, Monroe had a population of 48,815; the municipal population declined by 8.1 percent over the past decade. After a recheck in 2012, the Census Bureau changed the 2010 population from 48,815 to 49,147. Mayor Jamie Mayo, maintains that the Monroe population is more than 50,000 and indicated that he will pursue a continued challenge to the count. Monroe is the principal city of the Monroe Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the parishes of Ouachita and Union; the two-parish area had a total population of 170,053 in 2000 and an estimated population of 172,275 as of July 1, 2007. The larger Monroe-Bastrop Combined Statistical Area is composed of both the Monroe Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Bastrop Micropolitan Statistical Area; the CSA had a population of 201,074 in 2000. Monroe and the neighboring city of West Monroe, located just across the Ouachita River, are referred to as the Twin Cities of northeast Louisiana.
The settlement known as Fort Miro adopted the name Monroe, during the first half of the 19th century, in recognition of the steam-powered paddle-wheeler James Monroe. The arrival of the ship had a profound effect on the settlers; the ship is depicted in a mural at the main branch of the Monroe Library on North 18th Street. Therefore, credit is indirectly given to James Monroe of Virginia, the fifth President of the United States, for whom the ship was named. During the American Civil War and Opelousas, the seat of St. Landry Parish in south Louisiana, had Confederate training camps, they were established after the fall of New Orleans to the Union in 1862. Conscripts were soon sent to both camps. In 1862, Monroe and Delhi in Richland Parish became overcrowded with unwelcome refugees from rural areas to the east, they had fled the forces of Union General U. S. Grant, who moved into northeastern Louisiana and spent the winter of 1862–1863 at Winter Quarters south of Newellton in Tensas Parish, he was preparing for the siege of Vicksburg, not completed until July 4, 1863.
Historian John D. Winters reported "strong Union sympathy" in both Monroe; as the refugees moved farther west toward Minden in Webster Parish, many of the residents, themselves poor, refused to sell them food or shelter and treated them with contempt. Union boats came up the Ouachita River to Monroe to trade coffee, dry goods, money for cotton. "Confederate officers were accused by a citizen of encouraging the trade and of fraternizing with the enemy, eating their oysters, drinking their liquor." As the war continued and stragglers about Monroe became "so plentiful that the Union Army sent a special detachment" from Alexandria to apprehend them. In 1913, Joseph A. Biedenharn, the first bottler of Coca-Cola, moved to Monroe from Vicksburg, Mississippi; until Biedenharn's breakthrough, Coca-Cola had been available only when individually mixed at the soda fountain. Biedenharn and his son Malcolm were among the founders of Delta Air Lines Delta Dusters; that company was founded in Louisiana in Madison Parish.
It was based on products and processes developed by the Agriculture Experimental Station to dust crops from airplanes in order to combat the boll weevil, destroying cotton crops. Biedenharn's home and gardens at 2006 Riverside Drive in Monroe have been preserved and are now operated as the Biedenharn Museum and Gardens and are open to the public. Collett E. Woolman, the Ouachita Parish agent, was from Indiana, he pioneered crop dusting to eradicate the boll weevil, which destroyed cotton throughout the Mississippi River delta country in the early 20th century. Woolman originated the first crop-dusting service in the world; the collapse of cotton production meant a widespread loss of farm jobs. This contributed to the Great Migration of the early 20th century, when a total of 1.5 million African Americans left the rural South for jobs in northern and midwestern cities. They were escaping the oppressive racial conditions and violence under Jim Crow and the disenfranchisement that excluded most blacks from the political system.
Howard D. Griffin purchased a boat dealership in 1936 while he was a student at what became the University of Louisiana at Monroe. By the 1960s, Griffin's company had become the largest outboard motor dealership in the world, he sold motorcycles. From 1965 to 1985, Griffin and his wife, Birdie M. Griffin, operated their seasonal Land O' Toys store on South Grand Street in Monroe; the motto was "Land O' Toys. Once Christmas was over, the toy store was phased out, the outboard motors returned to the showroom. From her childhood memories, Sherry Lynn Mason recalls the Land O' Toys: "I loved that store; every time took me there, we were waiting for his outboard motor to be fixed across the street. It was a magical place to me!" Amy Berry Baker recalls, "It wasn't Christmas until we went to Howard Griffin... magical for kids," according to an article in The Monroe News-Star. Mrs. Griffin died December 15, 1985, the store close permanently a few days after Christmas of that year. In March 2011, the remaining abandoned building burned.
All that remains are the memories of the former customers, now all adults. Cheri Chadduck recalled, "Memories are magical, I am so grateful for my childhood recollections of time there." Monroe has an elevation of 72 feet. Ac
Barcelona
Barcelona is a city in Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within city limits, its urban area extends to numerous neighbouring municipalities within the Province of Barcelona and is home to around 4.8 million people, making it the sixth most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, Madrid, the Ruhr area and Milan. It is one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of, 512 metres high. Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. After merging with the Kingdom of Aragon, Barcelona continued to be an important city in the Crown of Aragon as an economic and administrative centre of this Crown and the capital of the Principality of Catalonia.
Barcelona has a rich cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre and a major tourist destination. Renowned are the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner, which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites; the headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean are located in Barcelona. The city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and many international sport tournaments. Barcelona is one of the world's leading tourist, trade fair and cultural centres, its influence in commerce, entertainment, fashion and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities, it is a major cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world and a financial centre. In 2008 it was the fourth most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union and 35th in the world with GDP amounting to €177 billion. In 2012 Barcelona had a GDP of $170 billion. In 2009 the city was ranked one of the world's most successful as a city brand.
In the same year the city was ranked Europe's fourth best city for business and fastest improving European city, with growth improved by 17% per year, the city has been experiencing strong and renewed growth for the past three years. Since 2011 Barcelona has been a leading smart city in Europe. Barcelona is a transport hub, with the Port of Barcelona being one of Europe's principal seaports and busiest European passenger port, an international airport, Barcelona–El Prat Airport, which handles over 50 million passengers per year, an extensive motorway network, a high-speed rail line with a link to France and the rest of Europe; the name Barcelona comes from the ancient Iberian Barkeno, attested in an ancient coin inscription found on the right side of the coin in Iberian script as, in ancient Greek sources as Βαρκινών, Barkinṓn. Some older sources suggest that the city may have been named after the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca, supposed to have founded the city in the 3rd century BC, but there is no evidence that Barcelona was a Carthaginian settlement, or that its name in antiquity, had any connection with the Barcid family of Hamilcar.
During the Middle Ages, the city was variously known as Barchinona, Barçalona and Barchenona. Internationally, Barcelona's name is wrongly abbreviated to'Barça'. However, this name refers only to the football club; the common abbreviated form used by locals is Barna. Another common abbreviation is'BCN', the IATA airport code of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport; the city is referred to as the Ciutat Comtal in Catalan, Ciudad Condal in Spanish, owing to its past as the seat of the Count of Barcelona. The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear; the ruins of an early settlement have been found, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends; the first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. The second legend attributes the foundation of the city directly to the historical Carthaginian general, Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family in the 3rd century BC, but there is no historical or linguistic evidence that this is true.
In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum centred on the "Mons Taber", a little hill near the contemporary city hall. Under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. Pomponius Mela mentions it among the small towns of the district as it was eclipsed by its neighbour Tarraco, but it may be gathered from writers that it grew in wealth and consequence, favoured as it was with a beautiful situation and an excellent harbour, it enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens. The city minted its own coins. Important Roman vestiges are displayed in Plaça del Rei underground, as a part of the Barcelona City History Museum; some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral known as the Basilica La Seu, is said to have been founded in 343; the city
Marseille
Marseille is the second-largest city of France. The main city of the historical province of Provence, it nowadays is the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, it is located on French Riviera coast near the mouth of the Rhône. The city covers an area of 241 km2 and had a population of 852,516 in 2012, its metropolitan area, which extends over 3,173 km2 is the third-largest in France after Paris and Lyon, with a population of 1,831,500 as of 2010. Known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Massalia, Marseille was an important European trading centre and remains the main commercial port of the French Republic. Marseille is now France's largest city on the Mediterranean coast and the largest port for commerce and cruise ships; the city was European Capital of Culture in 2013 and European Capital of Sport in 2017. It is home to Aix-Marseille University. Marseille is the second-largest city in France after Paris and the centre of the third-largest metropolitan area in France after Paris and Lyon.
To the east, starting in the small fishing village of Callelongue on the outskirts of Marseille and stretching as far as Cassis, are the Calanques, a rugged coastal area interspersed with small fjord-like inlets. Farther east still are the city of Toulon and the French Riviera. To the north of Marseille, beyond the low Garlaban and Etoile mountain ranges, is the 1,011 m Mont Sainte Victoire. To the west of Marseille is the former artists' colony of l'Estaque; the airport lies to the north west of the city at Marignane on the Étang de Berre. The city's main thoroughfare stretches eastward from the Old Port to the Réformés quarter. Two large forts flank the entrance to the Old Port—Fort Saint-Nicolas on the south side and Fort Saint-Jean on the north. Farther out in the Bay of Marseille is the Frioul archipelago which comprises four islands, one of which, If, is the location of Château d'If, made famous by the Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo; the main commercial centre of the city intersects with the Canebière at Rue St Ferréol and the Centre Bourse.
The centre of Marseille has several pedestrianised zones, most notably Rue St Ferréol, Cours Julien near the Music Conservatory, the Cours Honoré-d'Estienne-d'Orves off the Old Port and the area around the Hôtel de Ville. To the south east of central Marseille in the 6th arrondissement are the Prefecture and the monumental fountain of Place Castellane, an important bus and metro interchange. To the south west are the hills of the 7th and 8th arrondissements, dominated by the basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde. Marseille's main railway station—Gare de Marseille Saint-Charles—is north of the Centre Bourse in the 1st arrondissement; the city has a hot-summer mediterranean climate with mild, humid winters and warm to hot dry summers. December and February are the coldest months, averaging temperatures of around 12 °C during the day and 4 °C at night. July and August are the hottest months, averaging temperatures of around 28–30 °C during the day and 19 °C at night in the Marignane airport but in the city near the sea the average high temperature is 27 °C in July.
Marseille is the sunniest major city in France with over 2,900 hours of sunshine while the average sunshine in country. It is the driest major city with only 512 mm of precipitation annually thanks to the Mistral, a cold, dry wind originating in the Rhône Valley that occurs in winter and spring and which brings clear skies and sunny weather to the region. Less frequent is the Sirocco, a hot, sand-bearing wind, coming from the Sahara Desert. Snowfalls are infrequent; the hottest temperature was 40.6 °C on 26 July 1983 during a great heat wave, the lowest temperature was −14.3 °C on 13 February 1929 during a strong cold wave. Marseille was founded circa 600 BC as the Greek colony of Massalia and populated by settlers from Phocaea, it became the preeminent Greek polis in the Hellenized region of southern Gaul. The city-state sided with the Roman Republic against Carthage during the Second Punic War, retaining its independence and commercial empire throughout the western Mediterranean as Rome expanded into Western Europe and North Africa.
However, the city lost its independence following the Roman Siege of Massilia in 49 BC, during Caesar's Civil War, in which Massalia sided with the exiled faction at war with Julius Caesar. Marseille continued to prosper as a Roman city, becoming an early center of Christianity during the Western Roman Empire; the city maintained its position as a premier maritime trading hub after its capture by the Visigoths in the 5th century AD, although the city went into decline following the sack of 739 AD by the forces of Charles Martel. It became part of the County of Provence during the 10th century, although its renewed prosperity was curtailed by the Black Death of the 14th century and sack of the city by the Crown of Aragon in 1423; the city's fortunes rebounded with the ambitious building projects of René of Anjou, Count of Proven
Kirchberg, Luxembourg
Kirchberg is a quarter in north-eastern Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It consists of a plateau overlooking the north-east of the historical city centre, Ville Haute, connected to the rest of the elevated city by the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge, which spans the Pfaffenthal valley, it is referred to as the Kirchberg plateau, or the Kirchberg by Luxembourg residents. The isolated elevated position of the plateau made it an important defensive position and led to the 1732 construction of Forts Thüngen and Olizy in southeastern Kirchberg, as part of Luxembourg's impressive fortifications, its strategic importance was reaffirmed with several expansions to their battlements. However, much of Luxembourg's fortifications were destroyed following the 1867 Treaty of London. In 1875, the Parish Church of Our Lady, Refuge of the Sick, was built to serve a small farming community that had established themselves in central Kirchberg. Kirchberg remained undeveloped until the post-war period in the latter half of the 20th century, when its cheap land, proximity to the city provided an attractive locality as the provisional seat of the institutions of what would become the European Communities - the forerunner to today's European Union.
The Luxembourg government, in an effort to secure the position of the capital of the new supranational organisation, commissioned the construction of the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge, spanning the Pffafenthal valley, to connect the plateau directly with Limpertsberg, the rest of the elevated city. Though the discussions that led up to the 1965 treaty, which merged the institutions of the three Communities, failed to garner consensus from member states on a single location for their basis, Luxembourg remained one of the three de facto capitals, retaining several institutions, most the Communities' Court; the development of the European quarter acted as a catalyst for the urbanisation of Kirchberg, promoted by the government initiative, the Fonds Kirchberg. The major components of Kirchberg's ubranisation were drawn up by French architect Pierre Vago, with its central axis being the 3.5 km long Avenue John Fitzgerald Kennedy stretching from the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge in southwest Kirchberg to the edge of the Grünewald forest on the north-eastern border.
The avenue was beautified from its original inception as an expressway into a tree-lined pedestrian-and-cycle-friendly thoroughfare, with separated tram and bus lanes. The Kirchberg campus of the University of Luxembourg is located midway along this avenue, a number of glass and steel edifices of commercial, financial institutions spans from central to north eastern Kirchberg, where the Kirchberg Hospital is located. Kirchberg has developed into an important cultural hub; the reconstructed Fort Thüngen, listed along with the rest of the former Fortress of Luxembourg, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, hosts the Mudam, a museum of modern art opened in 2006. Designed by I. M. Pei, it displays works by some of the world's most notable modern artists. In close proximity, adjacent to one of the European Parliament's original plenary chambers, is the Philharmonie, Luxembourg's national concert hall; the grand auditorium seats over 1,500 people. On the western edge of the European quarter, Luxembourg's National Sports and Culture Centre, d'Coque arena contains an Olympic-sized swimming pool and the country's largest indoor arena with seating for 8,300 spectators.
An Auchan-owned shopping and restaurant centre, Luxembourg's largest cinema multiplex, Kinepolis Kirchberg, Luxembourg's national exposition centre, LuxExpo The Box, are all located at the far end of Avenue J. F. K in north-eastern Kirchberg. Today, south-western Kirchberg is dominated by the EU institutions and agencies that were the key to its development; this includes the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Court of Auditors, parts of the European Commission, the Secretariat of the European Parliament, the European Investment Bank. The EU's statistics agency, Eurostat, is based above the Auchan shopping centre. Additionally, the European School of Luxembourg I provides an education to the children of employees working within the EU bodies; as of 31 December 2018, Kirchberg has a population of 5,801, with less than a quarter possessing Luxembourgish nationality. Plans to provide Kirchberg with a more direct connection to national and international heavy rail links were realised in December 2017, with the opening of a funicular, on the southern edge of the plateau, in proximity to the European quarter, which provides access to a newly constructed station located in the bordering Pfaffenthal valley below.
Connecting the funicular station, a new tram line was opened which, as of January 2019, runs from its depot in northern Kirchberg, down Avenue J. F. K, across the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge, to Place de l'Etoile; when all stages are completed it will run from Luxembourg Airport, through Kirchberg, to the city centre, on to the central rail station, the new business district in Cloche d'Or, to the south of the city. Concurrently, a major new transport hub with 10 bus quays, a tram stop and a five-storey car park is under construction in northern Kirchberg, between Luxexpo and the new tram depot; the 16,500 sqm building will include offices as well as 580 car parking spaces. The bus and tram interchange has been in operation since December 2017. Like Luxembourg City, Kirchberg has a general oceanic climate, marked by high precipitation in late summer. However, the slope and height of the area accounts for occasional lower temperatures, more frequent fog and enhanced precipitation of both rain and snow.
European Parliament in Luxembourg Institutional s
Israel
Israel the State of Israel, is a country in Western Asia, located on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. It has land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west and Egypt to the southwest; the country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israel's economic and technological center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, although the state's sovereignty over Jerusalem has only partial recognition. Israel has evidence of the earliest migration of hominids out of Africa. Canaanite tribes are archaeologically attested since the Middle Bronze Age, while the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged during the Iron Age; the Neo-Assyrian Empire destroyed Israel around 720 BCE. Judah was conquered by the Babylonian and Hellenistic empires and had existed as Jewish autonomous provinces.
The successful Maccabean Revolt led to an independent Hasmonean kingdom by 110 BCE, which in 63 BCE however became a client state of the Roman Republic that subsequently installed the Herodian dynasty in 37 BCE, in 6 CE created the Roman province of Judea. Judea lasted as a Roman province until the failed Jewish revolts resulted in widespread destruction, expulsion of Jewish population and the renaming of the region from Iudaea to Syria Palaestina. Jewish presence in the region has persisted to a certain extent over the centuries. In the 7th century CE, the Levant was taken from the Byzantine Empire by the Arabs and remained in Muslim control until the First Crusade of 1099, followed by the Ayyubid conquest of 1187; the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt extended its control over the Levant in the 13th century until its defeat by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. During the 19th century, national awakening among Jews led to the establishment of the Zionist movement in the diaspora followed by waves of immigration to Ottoman Syria and British Mandate Palestine.
In 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency, rejected by Arab leaders; the following year, the Jewish Agency declared the independence of the State of Israel, the subsequent 1948 Arab–Israeli War saw Israel's establishment over most of the former Mandate territory, while the West Bank and Gaza were held by neighboring Arab states. Israel has since fought several wars with Arab countries, since the Six-Day War in 1967 held occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip, it extended its laws to the Golan East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories is the world's longest military occupation in modern times. Efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in a final peace agreement. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have been signed.
In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a democratic state. The country has a liberal democracy, with a parliamentary system, proportional representation, universal suffrage; the prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature. Israel is a developed country and an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member, with the 32nd-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2017; the country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. Israel has the highest standard of living in the Middle East, has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Furthermore, Israel ranked 11th in the UN's 2018 World Happiness Report. Upon independence in 1948, the country formally adopted the name "State of Israel" after other proposed historical and religious names including Eretz Israel and Judea, were considered but rejected.
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 been used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel and the entire Jewish people respectively; the name "Israel" in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was given the name after he wrestled with the angel of the Lord. Jacob's twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. Jacob and his sons had lived in Canaan but were forced by famine to go into Egypt for four generations, lasting 430 years, until Moses, a great-great grandson of Jacob, led the Israelites back into Canaan during the "Exodus"; the earliest known archaeological 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 and the Bahá'í Faith.
Under British Mandate, the whole region was known as Palestine (Hebre
Mount Lycabettus
Mount Lycabettus known as Lycabettos, Lykabettos or Lykavittos, is a Cretaceous limestone hill in Athens, Greece at 300 meters above sea level. Pine trees cover its base, at its two peaks are the 19th century Chapel of St. George, a theatre, a restaurant; the name refers to the residential neighbourhood below the east of the hill. The hill is a tourist destination and can be ascended by the Lycabettus Funicular, a funicular railway which climbs the hill from a lower terminus at Kolonaki. Lycabettus appears in various legends. Popular stories suggest it was once the refuge of wolves, the origin of its name. Another etymology suggests a pre-Mycenean, origin. Mythologically, Lycabettus is credited to Athena, who created it when she dropped a limestone mountain she had been carrying from the Pallene peninsula for the construction of the Acropolis after the box holding Erichthonius was opened; the hill has a large open-air amphitheatre at the top, which has housed many Greek and international concerts.
Among the artists who have performed at the Lycabettus theatre included Ray Charles, Joan Baez, B. B. King, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola, John Mc Laughlin, Gary Moore, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Nick Cave, Dead Can Dance, Pet Shop Boys, Deep Purple, UB40, Morrissey, Moby, Massive Attack, Faith No More, Whitesnake, Tracy Chapman, Slipknot, Patti Smith, Vanessa Mae, Brian Ferry, Tito Puente, Buena Vista Social Club, The Prodigy and Scorpions. List of contemporary amphitheatres Boguslawski, Alexander. "Lykavittos Hill." Retrieved August 30, 2005. Lycabettus Hill Website Media related to Lycabettus at Wikimedia Commons High-resolution 360° Panorama of Mount Lycabettus | Art Atlas
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