Israel: Regions, Cities & Travel Guide

What is Israel known for?

Israel is best known as part of the Holy Land, a small country in the Middle East holding sites sacred to several faiths. Layers of the past reach far into this ground. Faith runs deep here.

The land lies at the heart of the ancient Fertile Crescent and the Levant, and the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all trace holy places to it, drawing pilgrims from around the world. Geography adds its own draws, from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east, the lowest point on the surface of the Earth.

Where is Israel?

Israel is a small country in the Southern Levant, on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia. Four neighbours ring its land borders. Lebanon lies to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan along the east, and Egypt to the southwest, so the country sits at the meeting of the Middle East.

Water marks the other edges. The western coast runs the length of the Mediterranean Sea, the southern tip reaches down to the Red Sea, and to the east the land drops to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the Earth. The country is long and narrow.

From the greener, wetter north it stretches south into steadily drier country, ending in open desert near the Red Sea. It is small ground for such variety. Within a short distance the land runs from sea coast to mountain to desert, and from the Mediterranean shore to the deep rift of the Dead Sea.

This is the old heart of the Levant and the Fertile Crescent. For thousands of years the same narrow strip has linked the lands around it, a bridge between the Mediterranean world and the deserts inland.

What is the history of Israel?

Israel carries far more history than its size suggests. The modern State of Israel is young, established in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish people. The land beneath it is ancient.

This narrow strip holds thousands of years of history for many peoples and religions, layer upon layer along the same coast and hills. It was part of the old Fertile Crescent, the arc of early settlement, and of the wider Levant that bridged the ancient world. The Holy Land took shape here.

The three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all root their earliest stories in this ground, and the Baha'i Faith holds sacred sites here as well. Pilgrims have come for centuries. Their holy places still draw travellers from around the world to the same cities and shores.

The modern state gathered a scattered people. Most of its Jews descend from Olim, arrivals from many lands, and that mix of origins runs through the country's life. From ancient crossroads to a state founded in 1948, the land keeps both stories at once, the very old and the very new.

What is Israel like?

Israel is a land defined by faith and by mixture. Religion runs through everything. Sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baha'i Faith all lie within the same small country, and the pull of the Holy Land shapes how the place is seen from outside.

Yet daily life is broadly modern. Its people come from many lands, and that mix shows in the food, the music, and the streets of a Middle Eastern country. Many of its Jews trace their families to Olim, people gathered from around the world.

Their varied roots feed a modern Israeli culture that blends traditions gathered from many lands. Hebrew ties much of it together. The old language, revived in the modern era, is the common tongue of the State of Israel.

Faith and everyday life sit close together here. A holy site and a busy street can share the same block, the very ancient beside the very ordinary. From the Mediterranean coast to the desert edge, the country carries the weight of the Holy Land and the pace of a young state at the same time.

What is the climate of Israel?

Israel has a Mediterranean climate along its coast, with hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. The pattern shifts inland. Moving south and east, the land grows steadily drier, until the far south around the Red Sea becomes true desert, hot and almost rainless.

The coast stays milder, cooled by the Mediterranean Sea. Rain falls mostly in the cooler months, greener in the north and scarcer toward the Dead Sea.

How do you get to Israel?

Israel is reached mostly by air, with international flights landing near the Mediterranean coast before travellers spread out across the small country. Little ground separates one corner from the next. Nowhere is far.

The whole country fits within a few hours' drive, so a single arrival point can serve the coast, the hills, and the desert alike. By land it shares borders with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. Its coasts reach the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the Red Sea at the southern tip.