landmark
Old Jaffa
One of the oldest port cities in the world with 4,000 years of history, now an artists' quarter with galleries, restaurants, and views of Tel Aviv's skyline.
4 km · about 10 min drive
AsiaIsraelTel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv, Israel · Asia
About Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv is worth a stop: 10 minutes from Jaffa, 48km from Caesarea Maritima.
Tel Aviv is in Israel, with about 430,000 people. You drive on the right here. The nearest town is Jaffa, about 4 km away.
Tel Aviv, officially Tel Aviv-Yafo, and also known as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a population of 494,900, it is the economic and technological center of the country and a global high-tech hub. If EastRead more
Jerusalem is considered part of Israel, Tel Aviv is the country's second-most-populous city, after Jerusalem; if not, Tel Aviv is the most populous city, ahead of West Jerusalem.
Tel Aviv is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, headed by Mayor Ron Huldai, and is home to most of Israel's foreign embassies. It is a beta+ world city and is ranked 53rd in the 2022 Global Financial Centres Index. Tel Aviv has the third- or fourth-largest economy and the largest economy per capita in the Middle East. Tel Aviv is ranked the 4th top global startup ecosystem hub. The city currently has the highest cost of living in the world. Tel Aviv receives over 2.5 million international visitors annually. Tel Aviv is home to Tel Aviv University, the largest university in the country with more than 30,000 students.
The city was founded in 1909 by the Yishuv (Jewish residents) and initially given the Hebrew name Ahuzat Bayit (Hebrew: אחוזת בית, lit. 'House Estate' or 'Homestead'), namesake of the Jewish association which established the neighbourhood as a modern housing estate on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa (Yafo in Hebrew), then part of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem within the Ottoman Empire. Its name was changed the following year to Tel Aviv, after the biblical name Tel Abib (lit. "Tell of Spring") adopted by Nahum Sokolow as the title for his Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzl's 1902 novel Altneuland ("Old New Land"). Other Jewish suburbs of Jaffa had been established before Tel Aviv, the oldest among them being Neve Tzedek. Over the following decades, Tel Aviv started rapidly developing and expanding, under the leadership of Meir Dizengoff. Tel Aviv was given township status within the Jaffa Municipality in 1921, and eventually became independent from Jaffa in 1934. Accelerating Jewish immigration, largely from Nazi Germany, caused the growth of Tel Aviv to soon outpace that of Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population at the time. In 1948, the Israeli Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in the city, and government functions were carried out there until they moved to Jerusalem over the following few years. After the 1947–1949 Palestine war, Tel Aviv began the municipal annexation of parts of Jaffa, being fully reunified with Jaffa under the name Tel Aviv in April 1950, before a renaming to Tel Aviv-Yafo in August 1950.
Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of International Style buildings, including Bauhaus and other related modernist architectural styles. Popular attractions include Old Jaffa, the Eretz Israel Museum, the Museum of Art, Yarkon Park, and the city's promenade and beach.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is there to see near Tel Aviv?
Within an hour or so of Tel Aviv: Old Jaffa (4 km), Abu Hassan (Ali Karavan) (4 km), Caesarea Maritima (48 km), Yad Vashem (51 km).
Are there any good drives near Tel Aviv?
The nearest famous roads are King's Highway and Scorpions Ascent (Ma'ale Akrabim).
Where is Tel Aviv?
Tel Aviv is in Tel Aviv, Israel, about 4 km from Jaffa.
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Quick Information
- Population
- 432,892
- Continent
- Asia
- Country
- Israel
- Region
- Tel Aviv
- Timezone
- Asia/Jerusalem
- Coordinates
- 32.0809, 34.7806
Tags
Worth the detour from Tel Aviv
8 notable places within an hour's drive.
restaurant
Abu Hassan (Ali Karavan)
A Jaffa hummus counter running since 1971, famous for masabacha made with whole chickpeas and extra tahini. It sells out and closes by mid-afternoon, and the queue starts well before that.
4 km · about 10 min drive
ancient ruins
Caesarea Maritima
A spectacular Roman-era port city with a grand amphitheater, aqueducts, and crusader fortifications on the Mediterranean coast.
48 km · about 55 min drive
museum
Yad Vashem
Israel's official memorial to the Holocaust, with deeply moving exhibits and a striking modernist museum built into a mountainside.
51 km · about 60 min drive
cathedral
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Christianity's holiest site, built on the traditional locations of Jesus's crucifixion and burial.
54 km · about 60 min drive
landmark
Jerusalem Old City
A walled sacred city of one square kilometer containing holy sites for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam within four historic quarters.
55 km · about 65 min drive
landmark
Western Wall (Wailing Wall)
The holiest site where Jews can pray, a 2,000-year-old limestone remnant of the Second Temple retaining wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.
55 km · about 65 min drive
landmark
Dome of the Rock
The iconic gold-domed Islamic shrine on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, built in 691 CE over the sacred Foundation Stone.
55 km · about 65 min drive
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