Israel

The Merneptah Stele (13th century BCE). The majority of biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel," the first instance of the name in the record.

The Large Stone Structure, an archaeological site in Jerusalem

Map of Israel and Judah in the 9th century BCE

Portion of the Temple Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, written during the Second Temple period

Kfar Bar'am, an ancient Jewish village, abandoned some time between the 7th–13th centuries CE.

The 13th-century Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem

The First Zionist Congress (1897) in Basel, Switzerland

UN Map, "Palestine plan of partition with economic union"

Territory held by Israel: The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt in 1982.

Israel's 1980 law declared that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel."

Shimon Peres (left) with Yitzhak Rabin (center) and King Hussein of Jordan (right), prior to signing the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994.

The site of the 2001 Tel Aviv Dolphinarium discotheque massacre, in which 21 Israelis were killed.

Köppen climate classification map of Israel and the Golan Heights

Immigration to Israel in the years 1948–2015. The two peaks were in 1949 and 1990.

Road sign in Hebrew, Arabic, and English

The Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall, Jerusalem.

Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University

Mount Scopus Campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Knesset chamber, home to the Israeli parliament

Supreme Court of Israel, Givat Ram, Jerusalem

Map of Israel showing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights

Israeli West Bank barrier separating Israel and the West Bank

Area C of the West Bank, controlled by Israel under Oslo Accords, in blue and red, in December 2011

Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat at the signing ceremony of the Oslo Accords with then US President Bill Clinton

Squad commanders exercise at Eliakim training base in 2012

Iron Dome is the world's first operational anti-artillery rocket defense system.

Change in per capita GDP of Israel since 1950. Figures are inflation-adjusted to 2011 International dollars.

The Diamond Exchange District in Ramat Gan

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Its building is optimized for computer trading, with systems located in an underground bunker to keep the exchange active during emergencies.

The world's largest solar parabolic dish at the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center.

Ein Bokek resort on the shore of the Dead Sea

Shmuel Yosef Agnon, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta

Shrine of the Book, repository of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem

A meal including falafel, hummus, French fries and Israeli salad

Country in Western Asia.

- Israel

500 related topics

Jerusalem

City in Western Asia.

Close up of the Khirbet Beit Lei inscription, showing the earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem, dated to the seventh or sixth century BCE

Stepped Stone Structure in the City of David, the ancient core of Jerusalem during the Bronze Age and Iron Age

The Siloam Inscription, written in Biblical Hebrew, commemorates the construction of the Siloam tunnel (c. 700 BCE)

Modern-day reconstruction of Jerusalem during the reign of Solomon (10th century BCE). Solomon's Temple appears on top.

Holyland Model of Jerusalem, depicting the city during the late Second Temple period. First created in 1966, it is continuously updated according to advancing archaeological knowledge

A coin issued by the Jewish rebels in 68 CE. Obverse: "Shekel, Israel. Year 3". Reverse: "Jerusalem the Holy", in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet

Stones from the Western Wall of the Temple Mount thrown during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE

The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans (David Roberts, 1850)

Jerusalem mural depicting the Cardo during the Byzantine period.

1455 painting of the Holy Land. Jerusalem is viewed from the west; the octagonal Dome of the Rock stands left of Al-Aqsa, shown as a church, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands on the left side of the picture.

Medieval illustration of capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, 1099.

Jerusalem, from 'Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam' by Bernhard von Breydenbach (1486)

1844 daguerreotype by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (the earliest photograph of the city).

William McLean's 1918 plan was the first urban planning scheme for Jerusalem. It laid the foundations for what became West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem.

The Knesset houses the legislature of Israel

Orient House in East Jerusalem that served as the headquarters of the PLO in the 1980s and 1990s. It was closed by Israel in 2001, two days after the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing.

Snow visible on roofs in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Rehavia and Kiryat Wolfson, two Jewish neighborhoods, as seen from Givat Ram

Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly Arab neighborhood on the road to Mount Scopus.

Sign in Armenian in the Armenian Quarter.

The Old City is home to many sites of seminal religious importance for the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Mamilla Mall adorned with upscale shops stands just outside the Old City Walls.

Holyland Tower, Jerusalem's tallest building

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus campus

Hand in Hand, a bilingual Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem

Hebron Yeshiva in Givat Mordechai neighborhood

The Shrine of the Book, housing the Dead Sea Scrolls, at the Israel Museum

Tower of David citadel and the Ottoman walls

Ben-Zakai synagogue, photo taken in 1893

Guesthouse in Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first Jewish neighborhood built outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem (1860), on a hill directly across from Mount Zion.

Israeli policemen meet a Jordanian Legionnaire near the Mandelbaum Gate ({{Circa|1950}}).

King Hussein of Jordan flying over the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem when it was under Jordanian control, 1965.

Sunset aerial photograph of the Mount of Olives.

The Temple Mount, the site of the two former Jewish Temples, is the holiest spot in Judaism

The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall and the Kotel, is a remnant of the Second Temple and the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, and Jesus's empty tomb, where he is believed by Christians to have been buried and resurrected.

Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Sunni Islam. Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from the Great Mosque of Mecca to this location during the Night Journey.

The Garden Tomb – a new holy site established by British Protestants in the 19th century

The city straddles the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank; both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital.

Borders of Israel

United Nations-derived boundary map of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories (2007, updated to 2018)

Zones of French and British influence and control proposed in the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement during World War I

Article from The Times, October 25, 1920, reporting on the active discussions regarding the boundary line; this was later formalised in the Paulet–Newcombe Agreement.

Borders in the region of the Sea of Galilee and Golan Heights, showing the Ottoman boundaries, the 1920 agreement and the 1923 agreement

The Blue Line covers the Lebanese–Israeli border; an extension covers the Lebanese–Golan Heights boundary.

Egypt Ottoman border 1906, as depicted in the 1907 Survey of Egypt

A clearly visible line marks about 80 kilometers (~50 mi) of the international border between Egypt and Israel in this photograph from the International Space Station. The reason for the color difference is likely a higher level of grazing by the Bedouin-tended animal herds on the Egyptian side of the border.

David Ben-Gurion proclaiming independence beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism

Israel's 1949 Green Line (green thin line) and demilitarized zones (green thick line/areas)

Map showing Turco-Egyptian Boundary of 1st October 1906

The modern borders of Israel exist as the result both of past wars and of diplomatic agreements between the State of Israel and its neighbours as well as colonial powers.

Crusader states

The Crusader States, also known as Outremer, were four Roman Catholic realms in the Middle East that lasted from 1098 to 1291.

Anatolia at the beginning of the First Crusade (1097)

Godfrey of Bouillon during the siege of Jerusalem (from the 14th-century Roman de Godefroi de Bouillon)

Kings Louis VIII and Conrad III meet Queen Melisende and King Baldwin III at Acre from a 13th-century codex

Saladin and Guy fight from a 13th-century manuscript of Matthew Paris's chronicle

The crusader states after Saladin's conquests and before the Third Crusade

A 13th-century manuscript of the marriage of Frederick and Isabella

The feudatories of the king of Jerusalem in 1187

13th-century miniature of Baldwin II of Jerusalem granting the Al Aqsa Mosque to Hugues de Payens

Coins of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the British Museum. Left: European style Denier with Holy Sepulchre (1162–1175). Centre: Kufic gold bezant (1140–1180). Right: gold bezant with Christian symbol (1250s)

12th-century Hospitaller castle of Krak des Chevaliers in Syria

The kingdom of Jerusalem covered what is now Israel and Palestine, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and adjacent areas.

Sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant.

Greek (red) and Phoenician (yellow) colonies in antiquity c. the 6th century BC

The Roman Empire at its farthest extent in AD 117

The Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the European Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.

The bombardment of Algiers by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in support of an ultimatum to release European slaves, August 1816

Approximate extent of the Mediterranean drainage basin (dark green). Nile basin only partially shown

Map of the Mediterranean Sea from open Natural Earth data, 2020

Alexandria, the largest city on the Mediterranean

Barcelona, the second largest metropolitan area on the Mediterranean Sea (after Alexandria) and the headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean

The Acropolis of Athens with the Mediterranean Sea in the background

The ancient port of Jaffa (now in Tel Aviv-Yafo), from which the biblical Jonah set sail before being swallowed by a whale

Catania, Sicily, Italy, with Mount Etna in the background

İzmir, the third metropolis of Turkey (after Istanbul and Ankara)

Africa (left, on horizon) and Europe (right), as seen from Gibraltar

View of the Saint George Bay, and snow-capped Mount Sannine from a tower in the Beirut Central District

The Port of Marseille seen from L'Estaque

Sarandë, Albania, stands on an open-sea gulf of the Ionian sea in the central Mediterranean.

The two biggest islands of the Mediterranean: Sicily and Sardinia (Italy)

A submarine karst spring, called vrulja, near Omiš; observed through several ripplings of an otherwise calm sea surface.

Messinian salinity crisis before the Zanclean flood

The thermonuclear bomb that fell into the sea recovered off Palomares, Almería, 1966

The reticulate whipray is one of the species that colonised the Eastern Mediterranean through the Suez Canal as part of the ongoing Lessepsian migration.

A cargo ship cruises towards the Strait of Messina

Kemer Beach in Antalya on the Turkish Riviera (Turquoise Coast). In 2019, Turkey ranked sixth in the world in terms of the number of international tourist arrivals, with 51.2 million foreign tourists visiting the country.

Coast of Alexandria, view From Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt

The beach of la Courtade in the Îles d'Hyères, France

A view of Raouché off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon

Sunset at the Deir al-Balah beach, Gaza Strip

The countries surrounding the Mediterranean in clockwise order are Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco; Malta and Cyprus are island countries in the sea.

1949 Armistice Agreements

1955 United Nations map showing the Armistice Agreements, with original map reference points ("MR") on the Palestine grid referenced in the respective agreements.

Palestine Military Situation, April 6, 1949. Truman Papers

The Israeli delegation to the 1949 Armistice Agreements talks. Left to right: Commanders Yehoshafat Harkabi, Aryeh Simon, Yigael Yadin, and Yitzhak Rabin (1949)

The 1949 Armistice Agreements are a set of armistice agreements signed during 1949 between Israel and neighboring Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria to formally end the official hostilities of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and establish armistice lines between Israeli forces and Jordanian-Iraqi forces, also known as the Green Line.

Yishuv

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi at the Yishuv's Assembly of Representatives, September 1944

Yishuv (ישוב, literally "settlement"), Ha-Yishuv (הישוב, the Yishuv), or Ha-Yishuv Ha-Ivri (הישוב העברי, the Hebrew Yishuv) is the body of Jewish residents in the Land of Israel (corresponding to the southern part of Ottoman Syria until 1918, OETA South 1917–1920, and Mandatory Palestine 1920–1948) prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

Arab–Israeli conflict

A Jewish bus equipped with wire screens to protect against rock, glass, and grenade throwing, late 1930s

Egyptian forces crossing the Suez Canal on 7 October 1973

Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat at the Oslo Accords signing ceremony on 13 September 1993

The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the early 21st century.

Six-Day War

On 22 May 1967, President Nasser addressed his pilots at Bir Gifgafa Airfield in Sinai: "The Jews are threatening war—we say to them ahlan wa-sahlan (welcome)!"

Israeli troops examine destroyed Egyptian aircraft

Dassault Mirage at the Israeli Air Force Museum. Operation Focus was mainly conducted using French built aircraft.

Israeli reconnaissance forces from the "Shaked" unit in Sinai during the war

Major General Ariel Sharon during the Battle of Abu-Ageila

Israeli Armor of the Six-Day War: pictured here the AMX 13

An Israeli gunboat passes through the Straits of Tiran near Sharm El Sheikh.

Israeli paratroopers flush out Jordanian soldiers from trenches during the Battle of Ammunition Hill.

Silhouette of Israeli paratroops advancing on Ammunition Hill.

An Israeli airstrike near the Augusta-Victoria Hospital

David Rubinger's photograph of IDF paratroopers at Jerusalem's Western Wall shortly after its capture. The soldiers in the foreground are (from left) Zion Karasenti, Yitzhak Yifat, and Haim Oshri.

From left, General Uzi Narkiss, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, and Chief of Staff Lt. General Yitzhak Rabin in the Old City of Jerusalem after its fall to Israeli forces

Israeli tanks advancing on the Golan Heights. June 1967

The Six-Day War (מִלְחֶמֶת שֵׁשֶׁת הַיָּמִים; النكسة or حرب 1967), also known as the June War, the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or the Third Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from 5 to 10 June 1967 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states primarily comprising Jordan, Syria and Egypt (then known as United Arab Republic).

Israeli Declaration of Independence

Proclaimed on 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar 5708) by David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and soon to be first Prime Minister of Israel.

On the day of its proclamation, Eliahu Epstein wrote to Harry S. Truman that the state had been proclaimed "within the frontiers approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution of November 29, 1947".

A celebratory crowd outside the Tel Aviv Museum, located in 16 Rothschild Boulevard, to hear the Declaration

The invitation to the ceremony, dated 13 May 1948.

David Ben-Gurion declaring independence beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism

Ben Gurion (Left) Signing the Declaration of Independence held by Moshe Sharett

Independence Hall as it appeared in 2007

It declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, which would come into effect on termination of the British Mandate at midnight that day.

Lebanon

Country in Western Asia.

The Fall of Tripoli to the Egyptian Mamluks and destruction of the Crusader state, the County of Tripoli, 1289

Byblos is believed to have been first occupied between 8800 and 7000 BC and continuously inhabited since 5000 BC, making it among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

1862 map drawn by the French expedition of Beaufort d'Hautpoul, later used as a template for the 1920 borders of Greater Lebanon.

Map of the French Mandate and the states created in 1920

Martyrs' Square in Beirut during celebrations marking the release by the French of Lebanon's government from Rashayya prison on 22 November 1943

Demonstrators calling for the withdrawal of Syrian forces.

The Green Line that separated west and east Beirut, 1982

Map showing the Blue Line demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, established by the UN after the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 1978

Map showing power balance in Lebanon, 1983: Green – controlled by Syria, purple – controlled by Christian groups, yellow – controlled by Israel, blue – controlled by the UN

Demonstrations in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on 14 February 2005

Over 20,000 Syrian and Palestinian refugees live in the Shatila refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut.

Women protesters forming a line between riot police and protesters in Riad el Solh, Beirut; 19 November 2019

Kadisha Valley, a view from Qannoubine Monastery

Lebanon from space. Snow cover can be seen on the western Mount Lebanon and eastern Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges

The Lebanon cedar is the national emblem of Lebanon.

Mount Lebanon is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in elevation.

The Lebanese parliament building at the Place de l'Étoile

United Nations Lebanon headquarters in Beirut

Corinthian capitals of the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek

A proportional representation of Lebanon exports, 2019

Beirut is the tourism hub of the country

Beirut located on the Mediterranean Sea is the most populous city in Lebanon.

Saint George Maronite Cathedral and the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque, Beirut.

Distribution of main religious groups of Lebanon according to last municipal election data.

Temple of Bacchus is considered among the best preserved Roman temples in the world, c. 150 AD

Sabah and Salah Zulfikar in Paris and Love (1972)

Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in Beirut

Saint Joseph University of Beirut's Campus of Innovation and Sports on Damascus Street, Beirut

'Pilgrimage to the Cedars of Libanon' - painting by a Hungarian painter, Csontváry Kosztka Tivadar.

It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lies to its west across the Mediterranean Sea; its location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has contributed to its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious diversity.