Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ma'ale Adumim, among the largest of the post-1967 Israeli settlements, is just east of Jerusalem. September
2009. (Getty Images / Image Bank.)
Israel during the 1990s peace-process era and thus benefi ted the Palestinian economy —were
replaced by foreign workers after 2000.
Israel's fi nal boundaries will be settled only by a peace treaty with Syria and the Palestinians.
REGIONS
Israel has four main geographic regions: the Mediterranean coastal plain to the west, the hilly
region of the Upper Galilee that runs southward into the West Bank, the Jordan Rift Valley in
the east, and the Negev desert in the south. Within each area are subsections with their own
unique features. Israel's location at a meeting point of three continents makes it a pivotal area
for weather patterns, animal migrations, plant life, and tectonic plates.
The Coastal Plain
The coastal plain stretches 118 miles (190 kilometers) along or near the Mediterranean, from
the white chalk cliffs by the caves of Rosh HaNikra at Israel's northern border with Leba-
non to the desert along its southern border with the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Beyond the sand
of the coast itself, there is much fertile ground, and the area is famous especially for orange
groves. Along the coastal highway and the country's main railroad line lies a string of cities —
Nahariya, Acre, Haifa, Netanya, Tel Aviv -Jaffa, Rishon LeZion, Ashdod, and Ashkelon —
making the coastal plain Israel's most densely inhabited area. Indeed, half of Israel's entire
population lives there.
Around one-fourth of Israel's Mediterranean coast remains in its natural state. There
are major ports at Haifa and Ashdod. Eilat, on the southern gulf, has a coastline of 8 miles
 
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