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| Ashdod Sand Dune | |
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| Location | Ashdod, Israel |
| Coordinates | 31°45′43″N34°36′55″E / 31.761852°N 34.615259°E |
| Area | 462 square kilometres (178 sq mi) |
Ashdod Sand Dune is a psammosere ecosystem close to the city of Ashdod on the Israeli Coastal Plain near the Mediterranean sea. It is south of Tel Aviv.
Formerly, sand dunes dominated the coast of Israel with 462 square kilometres (178 sq mi) of dunes, of which over three-quarters were south of Tel Aviv. Over the last few decades the dunes have been replaced with cities, industrial areas, and power plants, and the dune landscape has gradually disappeared. Thus, one of the most characteristic and important aspects of the Israeli landscape is rapidly vanishing.[ citation needed ]
The largest remnant of Israel's coastal sand dunes is between Ashdod and Ashkelon. This is the only part of the landscape that still retains its shifting sands with its attendant animal and plant life and marks of bygone civilizations.
The importance of the area derives from its natural and cultural qualities. The dunes contain ecological systems of scientific value. Their function as an open area separating the urban sectors that are rapidly covering the country is of great significance, as is its role as a natural public recreation.
| | This section needs additional citations for verification .(June 2022) |
Because of the importance and uniqueness of this area and its potential for study, hiking, and recreation, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) has initiated the drive for a Sand Dune Park that would serve to protect the dunes and their properties for research, education, nature hikes, and public use. [1]
The dune park extends over 11 square kilometers between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and agricultural areas to the east, and between the city of Ashdod to the north and the Avtach water way to the south.
The area of the proposed park falls within three municipal jurisdictions: the northern part belongs to the city of Ashdod, the central part belongs to the Be'er Tuvia Regional Council, and the southern part belongs to the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. Each of the municipal authorities had plans for developing the area which threatened to cover the dunes with buildings and roads. Additional factors threatening preservation of the dunes are the Ministry of tourism, which planned to build a "riviera" of hotels along the coast; the Israel Lands Authority, which is interested in mining the sand; the Israel Defense Forces, which wanted to use the area for manoeuvres; and others. Until 1982, the area was designated for a nuclear power plant. [2] The plant was not built, but it resulted in stopping development, which saved the sands. When the plan for the power plant was canceled, interested parties pressured for development, but the SPNI then identified its importance and uniqueness and began to fight for its preservation.
In order stir public awareness and appreciation of the dunes, the SPNI established the Shiqmim Field School in Nitzanim in 1983. The school is housed in an historic building that once served the original settlers of Nitzanim. The SPNI also initiated a survey that identified and mapped the area's nature and landscape features; on the basis of this survey, the SPNI in co-operation with the Jewish National Fund (JNF) drew up a conceptual plan for the Sand Dune Park.
In 2021 the idea of turning the area into a nature reserve was rejected by the Ashdod Municipality and a plan for construction of about 6,600 housing units was approved. [3]
Ashdod is the sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District, it lies on the Mediterranean coast 32 kilometres south of Tel Aviv and 20 km (12 mi) north of Ashkelon.
Gush Dan or Tel Aviv metropolitan area is a conurbation in Israel, located along the country's Mediterranean coastline. There is no single formal definition of Gush Dan though the term is in frequent use by both governmental bodies and the general public. It ranges from combining Tel Aviv with cities that form urban continuum with it to the entire areas from both the Tel Aviv and the Central District or sometimes the whole Metropolitan Area of Tel Aviv. which includes a small part of the Southern District as well. Gush Dan is the largest conurbation and metropolitan area in Israel, with the metropolitan area having an estimated population of 4,156,900 residents, 89% of whom are Israeli Jews.
Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation's 61st national park on February 15, 2019. The park runs for about 20 miles (32 km) along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and covers 15,349 acres (6,212 ha). Along the lakefront, the eastern area is roughly the lake shore south to U.S. 12 or U.S. 20 between Michigan City, Indiana, on the east and the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant on the west. To the west of the steel plant lies West Beach and a small extension south of the steel mill continues west along Salt Creek to Indiana 249. The western area is roughly the shoreline south to U.S. 12 between the Burns Ditch west to Broadway in downtown Gary, Indiana. In addition, there are several outlying areas, including Pinhook Bog, in LaPorte County to the east; the Heron Rookery in Porter County, the center of the park; and the Calumet Prairie State Nature Preserve and the Hobart Prairie Grove, both in Lake County, the western end of the park.
Isdud is a former Palestinian village and the site of the ancient and classical-era Levantine metropolis of Ashdod. The village, which had a population of 4,910 in 1945, was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Today the ruins are located in the Be'er Tuvia region, 6 km southwest of the modern Israeli city of Ashdod. The archaeological site is known as Tel Ashdod, and remnants of the settlement's ancient and modern remains are visible.
Ashdod-Yam is an archaeological site on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. It is located in the southern part of the modern city of Ashdod, and about 5 kilometres northwest of Tel Ashdod where Ashdod stood in the time of the Philistines. Ashdod on the Sea and (inland) Ashdod were for most of their history two separate entities, connected though by close ties with each other. Most of the area has not been excavated yet and is covered by sand dunes.
Nitzan is a religiously observant community settlement in southern Israel. Located within the Nitzanim Sand Dune Reserve north of Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 2,660, including a large concentration of Bnei Menashe from the India and Myanmar regions bordering India.
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Tourism in Israel is one of the country's major sources of income, with a record 4.55 million tourist arrivals in 2019. Tourism contributed NIS 20 billion to the Israeli economy in 2017, making it an all-time record. Israel offers a plethora of historical and religious sites, beach resorts, natural sites, archaeological tourism, heritage tourism, adventure tourism, and ecotourism. Israel has the highest number of museums per capita in the world. For practical reasons, this article also covers tourism in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the occupied Golan Heights, since it is closely interconnected with the mass tourism in Israel.
Nitzana may refer to:
Ashdod Ad Halom railway station is a railway station in Ashdod, Israel. It is served by the Binyamina–Tel Aviv–Ashkelon and the Ra'anana–Tel Aviv–Ashkelon–Beersheba suburban lines. Ashdod Ad Halom Station was opened in June 1995 and was fully rebuilt in 2003. Between 1917 and 1947, a small station serving the town of Isdud had also operated at the site, constructed by the British on the Rafah–Gaza–Lydda line.
Rail transport in Israel includes heavy rail as well as light rail. Excluding light rail, the network consists of 1,384 kilometers (860 mi) of track, and is undergoing constant expansion. All of the lines are standard gauge and as of 2023 approximately one-fifth of the heavy rail network is electrified, with additional electrification work underway. A government owned rail company, Israel Railways, manages the entire heavy rail network. Most of the network is located on the densely populated coastal plain.
Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, or SPNI, is an Israeli non-profit environmental organization working to preserve plants, animals, and natural environments that represent bio-diversity, by protecting the lands and waters needed for their survival, and is Israel's oldest and largest conservation organization.
Tel Aviv Promenade runs along the Mediterranean seashore in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Coastal railway line is a mainline railway in Israel, which begins just south of the Lebanon-Israel border on the Mediterranean coast, near the town of Nahariya in Northern Israel and stretches almost the entire Mediterranean coast of the country, to just north of the border with the Gaza Strip in the south.
Tel Aviv Port is a commercial and entertainment district in northwest Tel Aviv, Israel along the Mediterranean Sea.
Nahum Zolotov was an Israeli architect and a recipient of the Rokach Prize in 1961 and in 1973. He was a recipient of the Rechter Prize.
The Ashkelon Subdistrict is the northern of the two sub-districts in Israel's Southern District. Its population is more than half a million. It is an important region for manufacturing including electricity production and water desalination, agriculture, transportation, tourism, and trade.
The Nitzanim Sand Dune Nature Reserve is a 21,600 dunam area within the Nitzanim Sands area between Ashdod and Ashkelon on the Southern Coastal Plain of the Israeli Mediterranean Sea coast.
