Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Tel Aviv, Israel

Another swap card from earlier this year. I don't have too many postcards from Israel so it's always nice to get more. ...and I really like Israeli stamps, they seem to issue a lot of really beautiful stamps!


Tel Aviv is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 414,600 and a land area of 52 square kilometres. Tel Aviv forms part of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, also known as Gush Dan, which constitutes Israel's largest metropolitan area and has 3,464,100 residents, 42% of the country's population. Tel Aviv-Yafo is the largest and most populous section of the metropolitan area.

The city is located on the Mediterranean coast in central-west Israel and is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai. Tel Aviv is home to many foreign embassies. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to in Hebrew as Tel Avivim or by the singulars: Tel Avivi (for males) and Tel Avivit (for females).

Tel Aviv was founded by the Jewish community on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa in 1909. Immigration by mostly Jewish refugees meant that the growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa's, which had a majority Arab population 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 Bauhaus buildings.

With over a million international visitors annually, Tel Aviv is a global city, a technological and economic hub, home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, corporate offices and research and development centers. It is the country's financial capital and a major performing arts and business center. Tel Aviv has the second-largest economy of any city in the Middle East after Abu Dhabi, and has the 31st highest cost of living in the world. Tel Aviv is the fifth-most-visited city in the Middle East and Africa. Known as "The City that Never Sleeps" and a "party capital", it has a lively nightlife, dynamic atmosphere and a famous 24-hour culture.

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