Israel's Geography: Land, Water, Ports, Heritage and Cities

The Four Physical Regions: Coastal Plain, Galilee, Rift Valley and Negev

The Library of Congress country study divides the land into four regions: the coastal plain, the central hills, the Jordan Rift Valley and the Negev Desert [1]. This division describes the area inside Israel's pre-1967 lines. Parts of the central hills and most of the lower Jordan Valley lie in the West Bank, outside those lines. The coastal plain runs from the Lebanese border to Gaza. Only Cape Carmel at Haifa Bay breaks it. The plain is about 40 kilometres wide at Gaza and narrows to about 5 kilometres at the Lebanese border. It is fertile and was once malarial, and it is known for citrus and vineyards. Several short streams cross it, but only two, the Yarqon and the Qishon, flow all year [1]. Most of the population, the largest cities, the main ports and the main rail lines sit on this strip. East of the plain are the central highlands, which average 610 metres in height. In the north they form Upper and Lower Galilee and reach 1,208 metres at Mount Meron, near Safed. The Jezreel Valley cuts across the highlands. It runs 48 kilometres southeast from Haifa to the Jordan valley and is 19 kilometres across at its widest point [1]. South of the Galilee, the highlands continue as the Samarian hills and the mostly barren hills of Judea. The Jordan Rift Valley is a small part of the 6,500-kilometre Syrian-East African Rift. The Jordan River, 322 kilometres long, rises from the Dan, Baniyas and Hasbani rivers near Mount Hermon. It flows through the drained Hula Basin into the Sea of Galilee, which covers 165 square kilometres. South of the lake, the river forms the boundary between the West Bank and Jordan [1]. The Library of Congress recorded the Dead Sea at 1,020 square kilometres and 399 metres below sea level [1]. The U.S. Geological Survey now describes its surface as more than 400 metres below sea level, the lowest natural land or water surface on Earth. The sea has split into two basins, and the strait that joined them is now dry. Salt and potash companies use the southern basin as evaporation ponds [2]. The USGS reports that the level fell 45 metres over 50 years. It dropped 17 centimetres a year from 1930 to 1973, 62 centimetres a year from 1974 to 1979, 79 centimetres a year from 1981 to 1990, and 100 centimetres a year from 1994 to 2001. A 2018 report by Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection gave a rate of 1.2 metres a year [3]. Israel, Syria and Jordan have dammed and diverted the Jordan and its main tributary, the Yarmouk. The Jordan once carried 1.3 billion cubic metres a year into the Dead Sea and now carries about 100 million. Nadav Lensky, director of the Dead Sea Observatory at the Geological Survey of Israel, has reported that since the 1980s the water has held too much salt to keep it dissolved, so salt crystals now settle on the sea floor [4]. South of the Dead Sea, the rift continues for 170 kilometres as the Arava, which has no permanent stream, to the Gulf of Aqaba [1]. The Negev covers about 12,000 square kilometres, more than half of Israel's land area. It is an extension of the Sinai Desert. It forms a rough triangle with its base near Beersheba, the Dead Sea and the southern Judean Hills, and its tip at Eilat. It has lowlands in the west, hills in the centre, and the Arava along its eastern edge [1].

Climate and Agriculture

Israel has a Mediterranean climate with long, hot, dry summers and short, cool, rainy winters. Altitude and latitude change this pattern from place to place. January is the coldest month, at 5°C to 10°C, and August is the hottest, at 18°C to 38°C. About 70 % of the rain falls between November and March, and June to August are often rainless. Rainfall drops sharply from north to south. The north averages 1,128 millimetres a year and the far south less than 100. Totals change a great deal from year to year, most of all in the Negev. Rain often comes in violent storms that cause erosion and floods. In January and February, snow can fall on the higher parts of the central highlands, including Jerusalem. The most cultivated areas get more than 300 millimetres a year, and about one-third of the country can be farmed [5]. Recent winters show how much rainfall varies. By late January 2026, the Israel Meteorological Service had recorded about 350 millimetres of rain nationwide. That was 118 % of the average for that part of the season but only 66 % of a normal full year [6]. The OECD reports that under a high-emissions scenario, Israel's mean annual temperature could rise by up to 4.4°C by 2100. Sixty % of days could be "hot days," and yearly rainfall could fall by 25 % [7]. Because rain is scarce and uneven, farming depends on water from other sources. The OECD reports that desalinated water and treated wastewater each supply about a quarter of Israel's water use. About 94 % of wastewater is collected and treated, and 87 % is reused, mainly on farms. Israel reuses more of its wastewater for farming than any other OECD member. Fresh water still makes up about a third of the water used in agriculture, which keeps pressure on natural sources [8]. Israel's water use per person was 138 cubic metres in 2020. The OECD average was 691 cubic metres [7].

Water: The Kinneret, the Aquifers, the Jordan Basin and Desalination

The Sea of Galilee, called the Kinneret in Hebrew, holds about 3 billion cubic metres. It served as the main reservoir of the National Water Carrier, the pipeline system that moves water from north to south [1]. Officials manage the lake by fixed levels. The upper red line, at 208.80 metres below sea level, marks the lake when full [9]. The lower red line is 213 metres below sea level. Pumping below it risks damage to the lake's ecosystem [10]. Below that is a "black line," under which ecological damage would be permanent [9]. The lake has recently stayed below its lower red line. In November 2025 it stood at 213.345 metres below sea level, 34.5 centimetres under the lower red line and its lowest level since 1980. The Water Authority began a "reverse national carrier" that pumps desalinated Mediterranean water into the lake, at first about 1,000 cubic metres an hour. Firas Talhami, head of the authority's Kinneret and northern water division, said the lake was falling by more than 2.5 metres a year. In earlier droughts it had fallen 0.9 to 1.2 metres a year [11]. At the end of January 2026 the lake was still 23 centimetres below the lower red line, 4.43 metres below full, and 1.65 metres above the black line [9]. In September 2026, the Times of Israel reported that the lake had been below the lower red line for most of the year. The plan to top it up with desalinated water remained limited and experimental [10]. Groundwater comes from the Coastal Aquifer and the Mountain Aquifer. The Mountain Aquifer lies largely under the West Bank. Article 40 of Annex III of the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, known as Oslo II, dealt with it directly. In that article, Israel recognised Palestinian water rights in the West Bank and left their settlement to permanent status talks. The article listed existing withdrawals from the Eastern, North-Eastern and Western aquifers and set their total yearly recharge at 679 million cubic metres [12]. No permanent status agreement has been signed. Inside Israel, the Mekorot water company, which runs more than 500 wells, reported repairing eight boreholes in 2024 and six in 2025 [10]. Desalination now supplies most drinking water. The Soreq B plant in Rishon LeZion reached full output of 200 million cubic metres a year in January 2026, after about a year at 60 % capacity. For the water year that began in October 2025, the Water Authority expected national demand of about 2.3 billion cubic metres. Six desalination plants were expected to supply about 800 million cubic metres, or 70 to 80 % of drinking water. The Kinneret would add 20 million. Recycled sewage and brackish water would add about 700 million, used mainly on farms. That brings "manufactured" water to 1.5 billion cubic metres. A seventh plant in the Western Galilee is planned for 2027 and would add 100 million [6]. The government's short-term target is 1.1 billion cubic metres of desalinated water a year, with new plants near Acre and in Emek Hefer. In June 2026 it approved a Water Authority plan for 2.3 billion cubic metres a year by 2050 and 2.75 billion by 2075 [10]. For the first time, the plan lets private companies propose plants of at least 100 million cubic metres a year. Planning and building a plant can take up to eight years [13]. Orly Babitsky of the environmental group Adam Teva V'Din said the plan does not account for global warming or for the water used to cool server farms [10]. The OECD notes that desalination has harmful environmental effects [7].

Ports and Transport Infrastructure

Nearly all of Israel's foreign trade travels by sea. Haifa is the busiest port and handles about half of all freight [14]. To add capacity, the government built two new private container terminals: Bayport at Haifa and Southport at Ashdod. Each is 800 metres long and 17.3 metres deep, built for container ships 400 metres long carrying up to 24,000 containers (measured in TEU, twenty-foot equivalent units). Bayport began operating on 1 September 2021 under SIPG, a company owned by the Shanghai International Port Group [15]. SIPG won a 25-year concession in 2015 and began construction in 2018. Bayport let ships carrying more than 18,000 TEU dock at Haifa for the first time [16]. Chinese companies also built Southport's infrastructure in Ashdod. SIPG was the only bidder for the Haifa tender [17]. The state also sold the older Haifa Port Company. On 15 July 2022, a group of India's Adani Ports and Israel's Gadot Group won the tender with a bid of NIS 4.1 billion, or US$1.18 billion. Adani holds 70 % and Gadot 30 %, and the concession runs to 2054 [18]. Eilat, on the Red Sea, is Israel's only southern port. Since November 2023, Yemen's Houthis have attacked and threatened ships linked to Israel, and major shipping lines stopped calling at Eilat. The Jerusalem Post reported that the port had 132 ship calls and unloaded about 150,000 vehicles in 2023. It reported 16 ship calls and no vehicles in 2024, and revenue fell about 80 % from roughly NIS 212 million [19]. Middle East Eye, citing Ministry of Transportation data, gave different ship counts: 134 in 2023 and 64 in 2024. It also reported that in July 2025 the Eilat municipality froze the port's bank accounts over unpaid taxes. That followed a NIS 15 million government grant approved after the state named the port a "strategic national asset" [20]. On land, the first line of the Tel Aviv light rail, the Red Line, opened on 18 August 2023 after years of delay. It runs 24 kilometres from Bat Yam to Petah Tikva through 34 stations. It does not run on the Sabbath [21]. Ten stations are underground, along a 12-kilometre tunnel. The line links five municipalities: Petah Tikva, Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv-Yafo and Bat Yam [22].

Archaeological Sites and UNESCO Listings

Israel accepted the World Heritage Convention on 6 October 1999. It has nine properties on the World Heritage List and 18 on its Tentative List [23]. The nine are:

1. Masada (2001)
2. The Old City of Acre (2001)
3. The White City of Tel-Aviv (2003)
4. The Biblical Tels of Megiddo, Hazor and Beer Sheba (2005)
5. The Incense Route and Desert Cities in the Negev (2005)
6. The Bahá'í Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee (2008)
7. The Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel (2012)
8. The Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin (2014)
9. The Necropolis of Bet She'arim (2015)

All nine are cultural sites [23]. They reach from prehistoric caves to 20th-century buildings and cover every region described above. The Carmel caves sit on the ridge that breaks the coastal plain. Megiddo and Hazor lie in the northern valleys. The Incense Route cities lie in the Negev, and Masada overlooks the Dead Sea. The Old City of Jerusalem is listed separately. It was inscribed in 1981 as a "site proposed by Jordan" and has been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 1982 [24]. UNESCO's conservation reports note that Israeli authorities have administered the Old City in practice since 1967. UNESCO receives separate reports on the site from Israel and from the Jordanian and Palestinian delegations [25]. Israel's own list therefore does not include the city's best-known holy places. UNESCO describes the White City as a group of Modern Movement buildings in Tel Aviv, a city founded in 1909. It was built from the early 1930s to the 1950s, following a town plan by Sir Patrick Geddes. Architects trained in Europe designed its buildings and adapted modern design to local culture and climate [26]. The municipality's conservation unit controls building permits inside the listed area [26].

City Profiles: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba

Jerusalem** sits in the central highlands, where winter snow sometimes falls [5]. According to the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, the city had 1,050,200 residents at the end of 2024: 997,900 Israeli residents and 52,300 foreign residents. Among Israeli residents, 60 % were Jewish and 40 % Arab. In 2024, 8,000 more people moved from Jerusalem to other Israeli towns than moved in [27]. These figures cover the municipal area Israel set after 1967, which includes East Jerusalem. Israel's Basic Law of 1980 states that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel." It names the city as the seat of the President, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court [28]. UN Security Council Resolution 478 of 20 August 1980 declared that law, and all Israeli measures changing the city's character and status, "null and void." It called on states with embassies in Jerusalem to withdraw them [29]. Tel Aviv-Yafo** lies on the central coastal plain. Central Bureau of Statistics figures reported in April 2023 put its population at about 474,000 [30]. Its White City is a World Heritage site [26], and the Red Line light rail now connects it with four neighbouring cities [22]. The city anchors the most densely built part of the coastal strip. Haifa** stands where Cape Carmel meets the sea and breaks the coastal plain [1]. The same CBS figures put its population at about 289,000 [30]. The city holds the country's busiest port, which handles about half of all freight [14], and the Bayport terminal [15]. Haifa and the Western Galilee also hold the Bahá'í Holy Places on the World Heritage List [23]. Beersheba** lies at the northern base of the Negev triangle [1]. CBS figures reported in April 2023 put its population at about 214,000. Its municipal area is the third largest of any Israeli city, after Dimona and Jerusalem [30]. Tel Beer Sheba, an ancient settlement mound (a "tel") next to the modern city, is part of the Biblical Tels World Heritage listing [23]. The city serves as the administrative and medical centre for the Negev and is home to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

In One Paragraph

Israel's land falls into four regions. A narrow, fertile coastal plain holds most people, cities and ports. Central highlands rise to 1,208 metres in the Galilee. The Jordan Rift Valley holds the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Negev desert covers more than half the land. Rain falls mostly from November to March and drops from about 1,100 millimetres in the north to under 100 in the south. The Dead Sea, more than 400 metres below sea level, has fallen by about a metre a year as its inflow has been diverted. The Sea of Galilee has stayed below its lower red line for most of 2026. Six desalination plants supply 70 to 80 % of drinking water, and most of the 87 % of wastewater that is reused goes to farms. Haifa and Ashdod handle most trade, and new private terminals opened from 2021. Eilat has been nearly idle since Houthi attacks began in November 2023. Israel has nine UNESCO sites, and the Old City of Jerusalem is listed as a site proposed by Jordan. Jerusalem had about 1.05 million residents at the end of 2024. Israeli law calls it the capital, while UN Security Council Resolution 478 rejects that law. Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba had about 474,000, 289,000 and 214,000 residents in CBS figures reported in 2023.

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