Haifa

Sister cities

• Rosario
• West Hartford
• Kobe
• Suceava
• Guayaquil
• Santo Domingo
• Boston
• San Francisco
• Chengdu
• Aalborg
• Bremen
• Marseille

History

A town known today as Tell Abu Hawam was established during the Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE). Under Byzantine rule, Haifa continued to grow but did not assume major importance. A kinah speaks of the destruction of the Jewish community of Haifa along with other communities when the Byzantines reconquered the country from the Sasanian Empire in 628 during the Byzantine-Sasanian War. A 25-meter-long shipwreck dating back to the seventh-century was discovered near Haifa. The ship was built using the "shell-first" method, containing the largest collection of Byzantine and early Islamic ceramics discovered in Israel. Many inscriptions in both Greek and Arabic letters, the name of Allah and numerous Christian crosses were unearthed, including 103 amphoras with 6 types of which 2 types had never been discovered previously. In the 9th century under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, Haifa established trading relations with Egyptian ports and the city featured several shipyards. The inhabitants, Arabs and Jews, engaged in trade and maritime commerce. Glass production and dye-making from marine snails were the city's most lucrative industries. Haifa was later mentioned by the 12th-century geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi and the 13th-century geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi. Under the Crusaders, Haifa was reduced to a small fortified coastal stronghold. Under Muslim rule, the church which they had built on Mount Carmel was turned into a mosque, later becoming a hospital. In the 19th century, it was restored as a Carmelite monastery, the Stella Maris Monastery. The altar of the church as we see it today, stands over a cave associated with Prophet Elijah. In 1265, the army of Mamluk sultan Baibars captured Haifa, destroying its fortifications, which had been rebuilt by King Louis…

Geography

Haifa is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain, the historic land bridge between Europe, Africa, and Asia, and the mouth of the Kishon River. Located on the northern slopes of Mount Carmel and around Haifa Bay, the city is split over three tiers. The lowest is the center of commerce and industry including the Port of Haifa. The Carmel Mountain has three main wadis: Lotem, Amik and Si'ach. For the most part these valleys are undeveloped natural corridors that run up through the city from the coast to the top of the mountain. Marked hiking paths traverse these areas and they provide habitat for wildlife such as wild boar, golden jackal, hyrax, Egyptian mongoose, owls and chameleons. Haifa is inundated with boars. The boars began to descend from the valleys around the city from before 2019, and began to roam in the city's streets. In 2019, mayor Einat Kalisch-Rotem decided to stop shooting the boars. Boar sighting figures have struggled to go down since the Israel Nature and Parks Authority began fencing off forested areas, because residents often feed the boars. Haifa has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters (Köppen climate classification Csa). Spring arrives in March when temperatures begin to increase. By late May, the temperature has warmed up considerably to herald warm summer days. The average temperature in summer is and in winter, . Frost is rare in Haifa, but temperatures around can sometimes occur, usually in the early morning. Snow is very rare, which last fell in 1950. Humidity tends to be high all year round, and rain usually occurs between September and May. Annual precipitation is approximately .

Most-observed species

• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  6,482
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  5,861
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  5,645
• Graceful Prinia

  Prinia gracilis (Lichtenstein, 1823) · Aves
  4,508
• Laughing Dove

  Spilopelia senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  4,258
• White-spectacled Bulbul

  Pycnonotus xanthopygos (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) · Aves
  4,225
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  3,908
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,859

Most recent

• M 4.3 — 2026-04-06
  52 km NW of Tyre, Lebanon
• M 4.4 — 2023-02-22
  65 km NW of Tyre, Lebanon
• M 4.1 — 2023-02-07
  Dead Sea region
• M 3.7 — 2022-01-23
  4 km ENE of Kafr Mi?r, Israel
• M 4.1 — 2022-01-22
  4 km E of Taiyiba, Israel
• M 4.5 — 2020-02-06
  26 km W of Atlit, Israel