Tel Aviv

Infobox Israel municipality
name=Tel Aviv


caption=Emblem of Tel Aviv
imgsize=75

|imgsize3=300
caption3= Tel Aviv at dusk, taken from Tel Aviv University, September 2005
hebname=Hebrew|תֵּל ־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ
meaning=Spring Hill
founded=1909
type=city
typefrom=
stdHeb=
altOffSp=
altUnoSp=
district=ta
population=390,100cite web|title=Table 3. - Population of localities numbering over 1,000 residents and other rural population|publisher=CBS |date=2008-06-30 |accessdate=2008-09-13 |url=http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2009/table3.pdf |format=PDF]
Metropolitan Area: 3,150,800
popyear=2007
area_dunam=51788
mayor=Ron Huldai
website= [http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/english/index.htm www.tel-aviv.gov.il]

Tel Aviv-Yafo ( _he. תֵּל ־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ _ar. تل أبيب, "Tal ʾAbīb") [Tel Aviv is also commonly written in Hebrew without the hyphen (תל אביב).] (usually Tel Aviv) is the second-largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 390,100. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of convert|51.8|km2|sqmi. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, home to 3.15 million people as of 2008. [cite web |title=Localities, Population and Density per km²., by Metropolitan Area and Selected Localities |work=Statistical Abstract of Israel 2006 |publisher=Israel Central Bureau of Statistics |url=http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton57/st02_15.pdf |format=PDF|accessdate=2007-05-31 |date=2006-12-31] The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai. [citeweb |url=http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/english/index.htm |title=Tel Aviv Municipality |publisher=Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality |accessdate=2008-02-02]

Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa ( _he. יָפוֹ, "Yafo"). The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which was largely Arab at the time. Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of Modernist-style buildings.cite web|url=http://whc.unesco.org/archive/advisory_body_evaluation/1096.pdf |title=The White City of Tel Aviv |accessdate=2008-03-29 |publisher=UNESCO|format=PDF] cite news |url=http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/holiday_type/breaks/article3370349.ece |title=Hip and happening in Tel Aviv |work=The Times |date=2008-02-16 |accessdate=2008-02-16 |last=Strimpel |first=Zoe] cite journal |url=http://www.economist.com/cities/findStory.cfm?city_id=TLV&folder=Facts-History |title=Economist City Guide-Tel Aviv |journal=The Economist |accessdate=2008-01-21]

Tel Aviv is Israel's economic hub, home of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and many corporate offices and research and development centers. [cite journal |url=http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1998/04/11669 |title=New Economy: Silicon Wadi |journal=Wired |accessdate=2008-02-02 |date=1998-04-16] Its beaches, cafés, upscale shopping and secular lifestyle have made it a popular tourist destination.cite news |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/an-ugly-scrap-at-heathrow-for-the-bestlooking-kid-on-the-block-802459.html |title=An ugly scrap at Heathrow for the 'best-looking kid on the block' |publisher=Independent on Sunday |date=2008-03-30 |accessdate=2008-03-30] It is the country's cultural capital and a major performing arts center. In the 2008 Mercer cost of living survey, Tel Aviv was ranked as the most expensive city in the Middle East and the 14th most expensive in the world.cite web|url=http://www.mercer.com/costofliving|title=Cost of living top 50 cities
publisher=Mercer Human Resource Consulting |accessdate=2008-07-25]

Etymology

The name "Tel Aviv" (literally "Hill of Spring") was chosen in 1910 from many suggestions, among them "Herzliya". "Tel Aviv" is the Hebrew title of Theodor Herzl's book "Altneuland" ("Old New Land"), translated from German by Nahum Sokolow. Sokolow took the name from the Book of Ezekiel: "Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days." [Book of Ezekiel 3:15] This name was found fitting as it embraced the idea of the renaissance of the ancient Jewish homeland. "Aviv" is Hebrew for "spring", symbolizing renewal, and "tel" is an archaeological site that reveals layers of civilization built one over the other.citeweb |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Telaviv.html |title=Tel Aviv |accessdate=2007-07-18 |publisher="Jewish Virtual Library"] Theories vary about the etymology of Jaffa or "Yafo" in Hebrew. Some believe that the name derives from "yafah" or "yofi", Hebrew for "beautiful" or "beauty". Another tradition is that Japheth, son of Noah, founded the city and that it was named for him.

History

Jaffa

Jaffa is an ancient port and has changed hands many times in the course of history. A series of archeological excavations, between 1955 and 1974, revealed traces of towers and gates from the Middle Bronze Age.citeweb |url=http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/archaeology/projects/proj_jaffa.html |title=Excavations at Ancient Jaffa (Joppa) |accessdate=2008-03-30 |publisher=Tel Aviv University] Subsequent excavations, from 1997 onwards, helped date earlier discoveries. They also exposed sections of a packed-sandstone glacis and a "massive brick wall", dating from the Late Bronze Age as well as a temple "attributed to the Sea Peoples" and dwellings from the Iron Age. Remnants of buildings from the Persian, Hellenistic and Pharaonic periods were also discovered.

The city is first mentioned in letters from 1470 BCE that record its conquest by Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. Jaffa is mentioned several times in the Bible, as the port from which Jonah set sail for Tarshish; [Book of Jonah 1:3] as bordering on the territory of the Tribe of Dan; [Book of Joshua 19:40–48] and as the port at which the wood for Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem arrived from Lebanon. [Books of Chronicles II 2:15]

In 1099, the Christian armies of the First Crusade, led by Godfrey of Bouillon occupied Jaffa, which had been abandoned by the Muslims, fortified the town and improved its harbor. [citebook |title=A History of the Crusades Vol 1: The First Crusade |last=Runciman|first=Steven |authorlink=Steven Runciman |publisher=Penguin|date=1951|location=London |pages=282, 308 |isbn=978-0-14-013706-4 ] As the County of Jaffa, the town soon become important as the main sea supply route for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. [citebook |title=A History of the Crusades Vol 2: The Kingdom of Jerusalem|last=Runciman|first=Steven |authorlink=Steven Runciman|publisher=Penguin|date=1952|location=London |pages=191–92 |isbn=978-0-140-13704-0] Jaffa was captured by Saladin in 1192 but swiftly re-taken by Richard Coeur de Lion, who added to its defenses.citebook |title=A History of the Crusades Vol 3: The Kingdom of Acre|last=Runciman|first=Steven |authorlink=Steven Runciman |publisher=Penguin|date=1954|location=London |pages=70–71, 186, 324 |isbn=978-0-140-13705-7] In 1223, Emperor Frederick II added further fortications. Crusader domination ended in 1268, when the Mamluk Sultan Baibars captured the town, destroyed its harbor and razed its fortifications.citebook |title=Jaffa: A City in Evolution 1799–1917|last=Kark |first=Ruth |publisher=Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi|date=1990|location=Jerusalem|pages=8-10 |isbn=978-9652170651] To prevent further Crusader incursions, the city was ransacked in 1336, 1344 and 1346 by Nasir al-Din Muhammad. [cite journal |title=New Light on the History of Jaffa |publisher=Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 5:82-84 |first=S. |last=Tolkovsky |year=1925|location=London] In the 16th century, Jaffa was conquered by the Ottomans and was administered as a village in the sanjak of Gaza. According to some sources it has been a port for at least 4,000 years, [citeweb |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/jaffa.html |title=Jaffa |accessdate=2008-02-11 |publisher="Jewish Virtual Library"] Napoleon besieged the city in 1799 and killed scores of inhabitants; a plague epidemic followed, decimating the remaining population.

Jaffa began to grow as an urban center in the early 18th century, when the Ottoman government in Constantinople intervened to guard the port and reduce attacks by Bedouins and pirates. However, the real expansion came during the 19th century, when the population grew from 2,500 in 1806 to 17,000 in 1886.From 1800 to 1870, Jaffa was surrounded by walls and towers, which were torn down to allow for expansion as security improved.cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944906.html |title=Archaeological discoveries may prove barrier to Jaffa port rejuvenation |accessdate=2008-01-21 | date-2008-01-15 |work=Haaretz] The sea wall, convert|2.5|m|ft high, remained intact until the 1930s, when it was built over during a renovation of the port by the British Mandatory authorities. During the mid-19th century, the city grew prosperous from trade, especially of silk and Jaffa oranges, with Europe. In the 1860s Jaffa's small Sephardic community was joined by Jews from Morocco and small numbers of European Ashkenazi Jews, making by 1882 a total Jewish population of more than 1,500.

During the 1880s, Ashkenazi immigration to Jaffa increased with the onset of the First Aliyah. The new arrivals were motivated more by Zionism than religion and came to farm the land and engage in productive labor. In keeping with their pioneer ideology, some chose to settle in the sand dunes north of Jaffa. The beginning of modern-day Tel Aviv is marked by the construction of Neve Tzedek, a neighborhood built by Ashkenazi settlers between 1887 and 1896.

Urban development

The Second Aliyah led to further expansion. In 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, banded together to build a new on the outskirts of Jaffa.Jewish Virtual Library" |accessdate=2008-01-20] The goal of the "Ahuzat Bayit" (lit. "homestead") society was to build a "Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene". In 1908, the group purchased convert|5|ha|acre| of dunes northeast of Jaffa which were divided into 60 plots. Meir Dizengoff, who later became Tel Aviv's first mayor, was a member of Ahuzat Bayit. [citeweb |url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/people/BIOS/dizen.html |title=Dizengoff, Meir |publisher=Jewish Agency |accessdate=2008-01-21] [cite book |last=Bridger |first=David |authorlink= |title=The New Jewish Encyclopedia |publisher=Behrman House, Inc |year=1906 |pages=117 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=hZqpCrG3qw0C&pg=PA117&dq=founder+tel-aviv&sig=W_o3jcb3qX5frlmTU2tNfJhNqGo |isbn=] His vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with the Arabs.

Another housing society, "Nahalat Binyamin", began to build on April 11, 1909, after holding a lottery to divide up the land.citeweb |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/tahist.html |title=From Spring Hill to Independence |accessdate=2008-01-20 |publisher="Jewish Virtual Library"] Within a year, Herzl, Ahad Ha'am, Yehuda Halevi, Lilienblum, and Rothschild streets were built; a water system was installed; and 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) were completed. At the end of Herzl Street, a plot was allocated for a new building for the Herzliya Hebrew High School, founded in Jaffa in 1906. On May 21, 1910, the name Tel Aviv was adopted. Tel Aviv was planned as a European-style garden suburb of Jaffa, with wide streets and boulevards.cite journal |url=http://www.travelwritersmagazine.com/RonBernthal/tel-aviv-and-its-bauhaus-tradition.html |title=The White City: Tel Aviv And Its Bauhaus Tradition |last=Bernthal |first=Ron |journal=Travel Writer's Magazine |accessdate=2008-01-21]

By 1914, Tel Aviv had grown to include more than convert|100|ha|acre|0, including several new neighborhoods. However, growth halted in 1917 when the Ottoman authorities expelled the Jews of Jaffa. A report published in "The New York Times" by United States Consul Garrels in Alexandria, Egypt described the Jaffa deportation of early April 1917. The orders of evacuation were aimed chiefly at the Jewish population.cite book |title=The New York Times Current History |publisher=The New York Times Co|year=1917|pages=167 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Lls-WnKHpccC&q=Consul+Garrels+in+Alexandria+new+york+times+jaffa&dq=Consul+Garrels+in+Alexandria+new+york+times+jaffa&ei=n_vbR97NKJXGyATRhf3ABA&pgis=1|accessdate=2008-03-15 ]

Under the British Mandate

Under British administration, the political friction between Jews and Arabs in Palestine increased.
On May 1, 1921, the Jaffa Riots erupted and an Arab mob killed dozens of Jewish residents. In the wake of this violence, many Jews left Jaffa for Tel Aviv, increasing the population of Tel Aviv from 2,000 in 1920 to 34,000 by 1925.citeweb |url=http://www.travelnet.co.il/israel/TelAviv/History.htm |title=Tel Aviv History |accessdate=2008-01-20 |publisher=Travelnet.co.il] New businesses opened in Tel Aviv, leading to the decline of Jaffa as a commercial center. In 1925, Patrick Geddes drew up a master plan for Tel Aviv that was adopted by the city council led by Meir Dizengoff. The core idea was the development of a Garden City. The boundaries he worked within, the Yarkon River in the North and Ibn Gvirol Street in the East, are still regarded as Tel Aviv's real city limits although it has since grown beyond them.citeweb |url=http://mjwein.net/lectures/T-Lec-WhiteCity.pdf |title=Green, White or Black City? |format=pdf |accessdate=2008-03-16 |date=2006 |publisher=Martin Wein, Emory University]

Tel Aviv continued to grow in 1926 but suffered an economic setback between 1927 and 1930. At the same time, cultural life was given a boost by the establishment of the Ohel Theater and the decision of Habima Theatre to make Tel Aviv its permanent base in 1931. Tel Aviv gained municipal status in 1934.

The population rose dramatically during the Fifth Aliyah when the Nazis came to power in Germany. As the Jews fled Europe, many settled in Tel Aviv, bringing the population in 1937 to 150,000, compared to Jaffa's 69,000 residents. Within two years, it had reached 160,000, which was over a third of the country's total Jewish population. Many new immigrants remained after disembarking in Jaffa, turning the city into a center of urban life. In the wake of the 1936–39 Arab rioting, a local port independent of Jaffa was built in 1938, and Lod Airport (later Ben Gurion Airport) and Sde Dov Airport opened between 1937 and 1938.Tel Aviv's White City, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, emerged in the 1930s. Many of the German Jewish architects trained at the Bauhaus, the Modernist school of architecture closed by the Nazis in 1933, fled Germany. Some came to Palestine and adapted the architectural outlook of the Bauhaus as well as other similar schools, to local conditions, creating what is claimed to be the largest concentration of buildings in the International Style in the world.

According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan that proposed dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Tel Aviv, by then a city of 230,000, was slated for inclusion in the Jewish state. Jaffa with, as of 1945, a population of 101,580 people, 53,930 of whom were Muslim and 16,800 Christian, making up the Arab population, and 30,820 Jewish, was designated as part of the Arab state. [cite book |url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Maps/Story574.html |title=Supplement to a Survey of Palestine |accessdate=2008-04-13] The Arabs, however, rejected the partition plan. Between 1947 and 1948, tensions grew on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, with Arab snipers firing at Jews from the minaret of the local mosque. The Haganah and Irgun retaliated with a siege on Jaffa. From April 1948, the Arab residents began to leave. When Jaffa was conquered by Israeli forces on May 14, few remained.

After Israeli independence

By the time of Israel's Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, the population of Tel Aviv had risen to more than 200,000.Tel Aviv was the temporary capital of the State of Israel until the government moved to Jerusalem in December 1949. However, due to the international dispute over the status of Jerusalem, most foreign embassies remained in or near Tel Aviv. In the early 1980s, 13 embassies in Jerusalem moved to Tel Aviv as part of the UN's measures responding to Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law. [cite web |url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign%20Relations/Israels%20Foreign%20Relations%20since%201947/1979-1980/119%20Foreign%20Ministry%20reaction%20to%20the%20transfer%20of%20t |title=Foreign Ministry reaction to the transfer of the Dutch embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv |date=1980-08-26 |accessdate=2007-06-03 |publisher=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |work=Israel's Foreign Relations: Selected Documents] Today, all but two of the national embassies are in Tel Aviv or the surrounding district. [cite web |url=http://www.science.co.il/Embassies.asp|title=Embassies and Consulates in Israel |accessdate=2007-07-18 |publisher=Israel Science and Technology |work=Israel Science and Technology Homepage] In April 1949, Tel Aviv and Jaffa were united in the single municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo, and the lands of neighboring villages such as al-Shaykh Muwannis, Jammasin and Sumail, which had been depopulated during the war, were incorporated into the municipality.cite encyclopedia |year=2007 |title=Tel Aviv-Jaffa |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Judaica |publisher=Thomson Gale |url=http://www.encyclopaediajudaica.com/efiles/TelAviv.pdf |accessdate=2008-02-09|format=PDF] Tel Aviv thus grew to convert|42|km2|sqmi|sp=us|1. In 1949, a memorial to the 60 founders of Tel Aviv was constructed. [citeweb |url=http://www.fodors.com/world/africa%20and%20middle%20east/israel/tel%20aviv/entity_190378.html |title=Founders Monument and Fountain |accessdate=2008-01-21 |publisher="Fodors"] Over the past 60 years, Tel Aviv has developed into a secular, liberal-minded city with a vibrant nightlife and café culture.

In the 1960s, some of the city's Modernist Bauhaus buildings were demolished and replaced by the country's first high-rise buildings, among them the Shalom Meir Tower, which was Israel's tallest building until 1999. Tel Aviv's population peaked in the early 1960s at 390,000, representing 16 percent of the country's total.citeweb |url=http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/English/engineering/strategy/pdf/profile-main-issues.pdf |title=City Profile |accessdate=2008-03-30 |publisher=Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality |format=PDF] A long period of steady decline followed, however, and by the late 1980s the city had an aging population of 317,000. High property prices pushed families out and deterred young people from moving in.

At this time, gentrification started taking place in the poorer southern neighborhoods and the old port area in the north was renewed. New laws were introduced to protect the Modernist buildings, and their preservation was further helped by their gaining of UNESCO status. The early 1990s saw the population decline reverse in part due to the large wave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The 1990s also saw the emergence of Tel Aviv as a high-tech center. The construction of many skyscrapers and hi-tech office buildings followed, as Tel Aviv moved into a new phase in its development. In 1993 Tel Aviv was, for the first time, mentioned as a World City by Kellerman who emphasized the existence of "leading economic functions typical for the late 20th century city: hi-tech industries and a modern service economy." [citeweb |url=http://www.ff.uni-lj.si/oddelki/geo/publikacije/dela/files/Dela_21/019%20kipnis.pdf |title=Tel Aviv, Israel – A World City in Evolution: Urban Development at a Deadend of the Global Economy |first=Baruch A. |last=Kipnis |date=2004 |accessdate=2008-03-30 |format=pdf] The city is regarded to be a strong candidate global city with many of the key characteristics of World Cities being present.cite web|url=http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb57.html|title=Tel Aviv, Israel - A World City in Evolution: Urban Development at a Deadend of the Global Economy|last=Kipnis|first=B.A. |publisher=Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network at Loughborough University|date=2001-10-08 |accessdate=2007-07-17 Cities in Transition. Ljubljana: Department of Geography, University of Ljubljana, pp. 183-194.] On November 4, 1995, Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated at a rally in Tel Aviv in support of the Oslo peace accord. The outdoor plaza where this occurred, formerly known as Kikar Malchei Yisrael, was renamed Rabin Square.

Tel Aviv has suffered from violence by Palestinian terrorist groups since the post-First Intifada period. The first suicide attack in Tel Aviv occurred on October 19, 1994, on the Line 5 bus, when a bomber killed himself and 21 civilians as part of a Hamas suicide campaign. The most deadly attack occurred on June 1, 2001, during the Second Intifada, when a suicide bomb exploded inside a nightclub called the Dolphi Disco, and 21 were killed and more than 100 were injured. The most recent attack in the city occurred on April 17, 2006, when 11 people, many of them foreign laborers, were killed and dozens wounded in another suicide attack in the same location. [citeweb |url=http://www.adl.org/Israel/israel_attacks.asp |title=Major Terrorist Attacks in Israel |accessdate=2007-07-19 |publisher=Anti-Defamation League]

In recent years, Tel Aviv has seen increasing support towards green issues with the city turning its lights off as part of Earth Hour in March 2008. [cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=969276&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0 |title=Tel Aviv goes dark as part of global 'Earth Hour' campaign |accessdate=2008-03-30 |date=2008-03-30 |publisher=Haaretz]

Geography

Tel Aviv is located around coord|32|5|N|34|48|E| on the Israeli Mediterranean coastal plain, the historic land bridge between Europe, Asia and Africa. Immediately north of the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv lies on land that used to be sand dunes and as such has relatively poor soil fertility. The land has been flattened and has no important gradients; its most notable geographical features are bluffs above the Mediterranean coastline and the Yarkon River mouth. [citeweb |url=http://www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/Aliyah/About+Israel/Cities/Tel+Aviv.htm |title=Tel Aviv |publisher=Jewish Agency |accessdate=2008-01-26] Because of the expansion of Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan region, absolute borders between Tel Aviv and Jaffa and between the city's neighborhoods do not exist. The city is convert|60|km|mi|0|sp=us northwest of Jerusalem and convert|90|km|mi|0|sp=us south of the northern port city of Haifa. [citeweb |url=http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distances.html?n=676 |title=Cities located close to Tel Aviv |accessdate=2008-01-26 |publisher=TimeandDate.com] Neighboring cities and towns include Herzliya to the north, Ramat HaSharon to the northeast, Ramat Gan and Giv'atayim to the east, Holon to the southeast, and Bat Yam to the south. [citeweb |url=http://www.science.co.il/Israel-map-Carta.asp |title=Map of Israel |accessdate=2008-03-15 |publisher=Carta] The city is economically stratified between the north and south. South Tel Aviv is generally poor, with the exception of the Neve Tzedek neighborhood and some recent development by the Jaffa beach. It also includes the city's "downtown." Central Tel Aviv includes Tel Aviv's Azrieli Center and is also an important financial and commerce district that stretches along the part of Ramat Gan on the Ayalon Highway. The northern side of Tel Aviv is home to Tel Aviv University and some of Tel Aviv's most expensive upper class residential neighborhoods. The prosperity of the north stretches to neighboring Herzliya Pituah, Ramat HaSharon, and Kfar Shmaryahu.cite web
last=Yarkoni
first=Amir
title=Real Estate in Tel Aviv – continued
work=Tel Aviv Insider
accessdate=2008-07-22
url=http://www.telaviv-insider.co.il/real-estate-2.php]

Climate

Tel Aviv has a Mediterranean climate with hot summers, pleasant springs and autumns, and cool, wet winters (Köppen climate classification "Csa"). Humidity tends to be high year-round due to the city's proximity to the sea. In winter, temperatures seldom drop below convert|5|°C|°F|sigfig=2 and are usually between convert|10|°C|°F|sigfig=2 and convert|15|°C|°F|sigfig=2; the city has not seen proper snow since 1950. [cite journal |url=http://www.springerlink.com/index/U14836571826303N.pdf |title=The Distribution of Snow in Israel |accessdate=2008-02-13 |journal=GeoJournal|format=PDF] In summer the average is convert|26|°C|°F|sigfig=2, and often daytime temperatures exceed convert|32|°C|°F|sigfig=2. Despite the high humidity, precipitation during summertime is rare. The average annual rainfall is convert|530|mm|in|sp=us|1, usually concentrated in the period October to April. [citeweb |url=http://www.wordtravels.com/Cities/Israel/Tel+Aviv/Climate |title=Tel Aviv Climate and Weather |publisher=World Travels |accessdate=2008-02-20] Tel Aviv experiences on average more than 300 sunny days a year. The record high temperature the city has seen is convert|43|°C|°F|sigfig=2, whilst the city's record low is convert|-1.9|°C|°F|sigfig=2. [citeweb |url=http://www.myforecast.com/bin/climate.m?city=66382&metric=true |title=Tel Aviv Almanac: Historical Information (February - Record Low) |publisher=MyForecast |accessdate=2008-04-04] [citeweb |url=http://www.myforecast.com/bin/climate.m?city=66382&metric=true |title=Tel Aviv Almanac: Historical Information (May - Record High) |publisher=MyForecast |accessdate=2008-04-04]
Infobox Weather
metric_first=yes
single_line=yes
location=Tel Aviv
Jan_Hi_°F =63.5 |Jan_Hi_°C =17.5 |Jan_REC_Hi_°F = |Jan_REC_Lo_°F=
Feb_Hi_°F =63.7 |Feb_Hi_°C =17.7 |Feb_REC_Hi_°F = |Feb_REC_Lo_°F =
Mar_Hi_°F =66.6 |Mar_Hi_°C =19.2 |Mar_REC_Hi_°F = |Mar_REC_Lo_°F =
Apr_Hi_°F =73.0 |Apr_Hi_°C =22.8 |Apr_REC_Hi_°F = |Apr_REC_Lo_°F =
May_Hi_°F =76.8 |May_Hi_°C =24.9 |May_REC_Hi_°F = |May_REC_Lo_°F =
Jun_Hi_°F =81.5 |Jun_Hi_°C =27.5 |Jun_REC_Hi_°F = |Jun_REC_Lo_°F =
Jul_Hi_°F =84.9 |Jul_Hi_°C =29.4 |Jul_REC_Hi_°F = |Jul_REC_Lo_°F =
Aug_Hi_°F =86.4 |Aug_Hi_°C =30.2 |Aug_REC_Hi_°F = |Aug_REC_Lo_°F =
Sep_Hi_°F =84.9 |Sep_Hi_°C =29.4 |Sep_REC_Hi_°F = |Sep_REC_Lo_°F =
Oct_Hi_°F =81.1 |Oct_Hi_°C =27.3 |Oct_REC_Hi_°F = |Oct_REC_Lo_°F =
Nov_Hi_°F =74.1 |Nov_Hi_°C =23.4 |Nov_REC_Hi_°F = |Nov_REC_Lo_°F =
Dec_Hi_°F =66.6 |Dec_Hi_°C =19.2 |Dec_REC_Hi_°F = |Dec_REC_Lo_°F =
Year_Hi_°C = 24.0
Year_Hi_°F = 75.2
Jan_Lo_°F =48.5 |Jan_Lo_°C =9.0 |Jan_REC_Hi_°C = |Jan_REC_Lo_°C =
Feb_Lo_°F =49.6 |Feb_Lo_°C =9.8 |Feb_REC_Hi_°C = |Feb_REC_Lo_°C =
Mar_Lo_°F =52.7 |Mar_Lo_°C =11.5 |Mar_REC_Hi_°C = |Mar_REC_Lo_°C =
Apr_Lo_°F =57.9 |Apr_Lo_°C =14.4 |Apr_REC_Hi_°C = |Apr_REC_Lo_°C =
May_Lo_°F =63.1 |May_Lo_°C =17.3 |May_REC_Hi_°C = |May_REC_Lo_°C =
Jun_Lo_°F =69.1 |Jun_Lo_°C =20.6 |Jun_REC_Hi_°C = |Jun_REC_Lo_°C =
Jul_Lo_°F =73.4 |Jul_Lo_°C =23.0 |Jul_REC_Hi_°C = |Jul_REC_Lo_°C =
Aug_Lo_°F =74.7 |Aug_Lo_°C =23.7 |Aug_REC_Hi_°C = |Aug_REC_Lo_°C =
Sep_Lo_°F =72.5 |Sep_Lo_°C =22.5 |Sep_REC_Hi_°C = |Sep_REC_Lo_°C =
Oct_Lo_°F =66.4 |Oct_Lo_°C =19.1 |Oct_REC_Hi_°C = |Oct_REC_Lo_°C =
Nov_Lo_°F =58.3 |Nov_Lo_°C =14.6 |Nov_REC_Hi_°C = |Nov_REC_Lo_°C =
Dec_Lo_°F =52.2 |Dec_Lo_°C =11.2 |Dec_REC_Hi_°C = |Dec_REC_Lo_°C =
Year_Lo_°C = 16.4
Year_Lo_°F = 61.5
Jan_Precip_inch = 8.8
Feb_Precip_inch = 5.0
Mar_Precip_inch = 0.9
Apr_Precip_inch = 0.1
May_Precip_inch = 0.3
Jun_Precip_inch = 0
Jul_Precip_inch = 0
Aug_Precip_inch = 0
Sep_Precip_inch = 0
Oct_Precip_inch = 0.1
Nov_Precip_inch = 2.5
Dec_Precip_inch = 3.9
Year_Precip_inch = 21.5
Jan_Precip_cm = |Jan_Precip_mm = 126.9
Feb_Precip_cm = |Feb_Precip_mm = 90.1
Mar_Precip_cm = |Mar_Precip_mm = 60.6
Apr_Precip_cm = |Apr_Precip_mm = 18.0
May_Precip_cm = |May_Precip_mm = 2.3
Jun_Precip_cm = |Jun_Precip_mm = 0
Jul_Precip_cm = |Jul_Precip_mm = 0
Aug_Precip_cm = |Aug_Precip_mm = 0
Sep_Precip_cm = |Sep_Precip_mm = 0.5
Oct_Precip_cm = |Oct_Precip_mm = 26.3
Nov_Precip_cm = |Nov_Precip_mm = 79.3
Dec_Precip_cm = |Dec_Precip_mm = 126.4
Year_Precip_mm = 530.5
source =World Weather Information Service [cite web
url=http://www.worldweather.org/013/c00044.htm|format=PDF| title=Monthly Average of Daily Maximum and Minimum Temperature |publisher=World Weather Information Service |work=Statistical Abstract of Israel 2006 |accessdate=2008-01-19] [cite web
url=http://www1.cbs.gov.il/shnaton57/st01_04.pdf |format=PDF|title=Precipitation |publisher=Israel Central Bureau of Statistics |work=Statistical Abstract of Israel 2006 |accessdate=2008-01-19]
accessdate=
source2 =
accessdate2 =

Districts

Tel Aviv is made up of nine districts that have formed naturally over the city's short history. The most notable of these is Jaffa, the ancient port city out of which Tel Aviv grew. This area is traditionally made up demographically of a greater percentage of Arabs, but recent gentrification is replacing them with a young professional population. Similar processes are occurring in nearby Neve Tzedek, the original Jewish neighborhood outside of Jaffa. Ramat Aviv, a neighborhood in the northern part of the city largely made up of luxury apartments and including the Tel Aviv University, is currently undergoing extensive expansion and is set to absorb the beachfront property of Sde Dov Airport after its decommissioning. [cite news |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3420369,00.html |title=Tel Aviv airport to make way for luxury project |accessdate=2007-07-03 |date=2007-07-03 |last=Petersburg |first=Ofer |work=Ynetnews] The area known as HaKirya is the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters and a large military base.

Historically, there was a demographic split between the Ashkenazi and European northern side of the city, including the district of Ramat Aviv, and the southern, more Sephardi and Mizrahi neighborhoods including Neve Tzedek and Florentin.

Since the 1980s, however, restoration and gentrification has taken place on a large scale in the southern neighborhoods, making them some of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods for the more prosperous north Tel Avivis. In north Tel Aviv, the old port area, which had become run-down since the port was decommissioned in 1965, also saw an urban revival, becoming an upmarket area with shops and restaurants.

Architecture

The early architecture of Tel Aviv consisted largely of Eastern European-style single-story houses with red-tiled roofs. Neve Tzedek, the first neighborhood to be constructed outside of Jaffa is characterised by two-story sandstone buildings. By the 1920s, a new eclectic Orientalist style came into vogue, combining European architecture with Middle Eastern features such as arches, domes and ornamental tiles. Municipal construction followed the "garden city" master plan drawn up by Patrick Geddes. Two- and three-story buildings were interspersed with boulevards and public parks. Bauhaus architecture was introduced in the 1920s and 1930s by German Jewish architects who settled in Palestine after the rise of the Nazis. Tel Aviv's White City, in north Tel Aviv, contains more than 5,000 Modernist-style buildings inspired by the Bauhaus school and Le Corbusier. Construction of these buildings, later declared protected landmarks and, collectively, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, continued until the 1950s in the area around Rothschild Boulevard. [citeweb |url=http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=1096 |title=White City of Tel Aviv |accessdate=2007-07-19 |publisher=UNESCO] Three thousand buildings were created in this style between 1931 and 1939 alone.In the 1960s, this architectural style gave way to office towers and a chain of waterfront hotels and commercial skyscrapers. Some of the city's Modernist buildings were neglected to the point of ruin. Before legislation to preserve this landmark architecture, many of the old buildings were demolished. In recent years, efforts have been made to refurbish Bauhaus buildings and restore them to their original condition. [citeweb |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/Architecture/Bauhaus.html |title=Bauhaus Architecture |publisher="Jewish Virtual Library" |accessdate=2008-02-11] In recent years, Tel Aviv has become a hub of modern high-rise architecture due to the soaring price of real-estate in the city. The Shalom Meir Tower, Israel's first skyscraper, was built in Tel Aviv in 1965 and remained the country's tallest building until 1999. The Azrieli Center, composed of three buildings— one square, one triangular, and one circular—usurped that title. Since 2001, Israel's tallest building is the City Gate Tower, which is located in the neighboring city of Ramat Gan, although the country's tallest wholly residential building, the Neve Tzedek Tower, is in Tel Aviv. New neighborhoods such as the Park Tzameret are being constructed to house luxury apartment towers including YOO Tel Aviv towers designed by Philippe Starck, while zones such as The southern Kirya are being developed with office towers. Other recent additions to Tel Aviv's skyline are the 1 Rothschild Tower, Be'eri Nahardea Tower and url=http://telavivinf.com/info/infoitems.asp?lang=eng&cat=1&status=completed |title=Tel Aviv Towers|accessdate=2008-03-15 |publisher=Tel Aviv in Focus] [cite web |url=http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?cityID=948 |title=Tel Aviv |publisher=SkyscraperPage.com |accessdate=2008-03-15]

Demographics

References

Bibliography

* "Sur les traces du modernisme, Tel-Aviv-Haïfa-Jérusalem" (CIVA) 2004 (Hebrew and French)
* "L'Atlas de Tel-Aviv" (Catherine Weill-Rochant) 2008 (Historical maps and photos, French, soon in Hebrew and English)

External links

* [http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/English/home.asp The official Tel Aviv municipality website]
* [http://www.visit-tlv.com Tel Aviv official tourism website]
* [http://www.3disrael.com/telaviv/ Get to know Tel Aviv by HD virtual tours]
* [http://www.borodulincollection.com/israel_color/city_without_a_break.html Tel Aviv - city without a break] Photography by Lev Borodulin
* [http://www.telavivfoundation.org/about_tel_aviv.htm Tel Aviv Foundation]
* [http://www.israelviews.com/photos/Tel%2DAviv/ Tel Aviv Photos]