Rishon LeZion (Rishon LeTsiyyon)
Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who were part of the First Aliyah, it was the first Zionist settlement founded in the Land of Israel by the New Yishuv and the second Jewish farm settlement established in Ottoman Syria in the 19th century, after Petah Tikva. As of 2017, it was the fourth-largest city in Israel, with a population of.
The city is a member of Forum 15, which is an association of fiscally autonomous cities in Israel that do not depend on national balancing or development grants.
The name Rishon LeZion is derived from a verse from the Tanakh: "First to Zion are they, and I shall give herald to Jerusalem" (ראשון לציון הנה הינם, ולירושלים מבשר אתן) (Isaiah 41:27) and literally translates as "First to Zion".
Map - Rishon LeZion (Rishon LeTsiyyon)
Map
Country - Israel
Flag of Israel |
The Southern Levant, of which modern Israel forms a part, is on the land corridor used by hominins to emerge from Africa and has some of the first signs of human habitation. In ancient history, it was where Canaanite and later Israelite civilizations developed, and where the kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged, before falling, respectively, to the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire. During the classical era, the region was ruled by the Achaemenid, Macedonian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. The Maccabean Revolt gave rise to the Hasmonean kingdom, before the Roman Republic took control a century later. The subsequent Jewish–Roman wars resulted in widespread destruction and displacement across Judea. Under Byzantine rule, Christians replaced Jews as the majority. From the 7th century, Muslim rule was established under the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates. In the 11th century, the First Crusade asserted European Christian rule under the Crusader states. For the next two centuries, the region saw continuous wars between the Crusaders and the Ayyubids, ending when the Crusaders lost their last territorial possessions to the Mamluk Sultanate, which ceded the territory to the Ottoman Empire at the onset of the 16th century.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
ILS | Israeli new shekel | ₪ | 2 |
ISO | Language |
---|---|
AR | Arabic language |
EN | English language |
HE | Hebrew language |