 Haifa (חֵיפָה) Travel Guide, Israel
View of Haifa from Mount Carmel
Author: Zvi Roger (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)
Haifa (חֵיפָה) is the third largest city in Israel, and a major seaport on Israel's Mediterranean shore. It covers 63.6 sq km (24.6 sq mi) and has a population of 267,000 (2011 estimate). Its metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Krayot, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher, has a population of 600,000.
Haifa is on the coast facing the Mediterranean Sea. It is between Mount Carmel and Haifa Bay. It is about 90 km (56 mi) to the north of Tel Aviv. Haifa has a number of beaches along the Mediterranean coast. It enjoys a Mediterranean climate. The hottest months are July and August, when the average high temperature reaches 31.4°C (88.5°F). Coldest month in Haifa are January and February, when the average temperature may drop to 8.7°C (47.7°F).
Downtown Haifa, Israel
Author: Zvi Roger (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)
The city of Haifa is one of the industrial centers of Israel. It is home to Matam, the largest and oldest business park in Israel, which houses facilities for a number of multi-national corporations including Intel, IBM, Microsoft and Google. The city has one of the two oil refineries in Israel. It was built in the 1930's during the British Mandate.
Haifa is today a modern city with its share of shopping malls and skyscrapers. It is also the site of the Bahá'í World Center, the spiritual and administrative center of the Bahá'í faith, which had its origin in the area during the Ottoman Syria period in the 19th century. Today the centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
International Bahá'í Archives in Haifa
Author: Jalal Volker (public domain)
The history of Haifa goes back to the 14th century BC, when a small port city existed here known as Tell Abu Hawam. That city later relocated to a different site further south, as the harbor became shallow. The city of Haifa was first mentioned in the 3rd century AD.
Over the ages, Haifa was under the rule of different powers, including the Greeks, the Byzantine, the Arabs and the Crusaders. Under the Crusaders, Haifa was reduced to a small rural village within the Principality of Galilee. In the 12th century, the Carmelites established a church on Mount Carmel.
Elijah's Cave, Haifa
Author: Hanay (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)
The Arabs under Kurdish Muslim Saladin captured Haifa in 1187, destroying the Crusader's fortress in the process. Many of the houses in the city were also destroyed, as a means of preventing the Crusaders from coming back. Haifa was under Ottoman rule right through the 19th century, although the period was punctuated by brief periods when occasional foreign conquests, such as that of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, and the rule of Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali between 1831 and 1840.
Ottoman rule finally came to an end when the empire collapsed at the end of the First World War. Haifa fell to Indian horsemen serving the British Army in 1918, and with that, the city came under British Mandate. During that time, the Arab population of Haifa was 96% while the Jewish population only 4%. The figures were to invest over the decades, as the Jewish population steadily increased. Today 90% of the population are Jews, of which over a quarter were immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The remainder 10% are Arabs who are predominantly Christians.
Madalani building, Haifa
Author: Hanay (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)
Visiting Haifa
The Haifa U Michaeli Airport is a domestic airport receiving flights only from Eilat and Tel Aviv. Instead of flying to this airport, you can also reach Haifa by train or bus from Tel Aviv.
Back street in Haifa
Author: Hanay (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)
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Places of Interest in Haifa
- Bahá'í Gardens and World Center
- Bat Galim
- Cave of Elijah
- German Colony
- National Museum of Science and Technology
- Stella Maris Carmelite Monastery
- University of Haifa
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