Tel Aviv is a major city in Israel, located on the country's Mediterranean coastline. It is the financial center and the technology hub of Israel, with a population of 438,818, making it Israel's second-largest city.
The city was founded in 1909 by Jews on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa. Immigration by mostly Jewish refugees meant that the growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced that of Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population at the time. Tel Aviv and Jaffa were later merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel.
Tel Aviv is an important financial center. It was built on sand dunes in an area unsuitable for farming. Instead, it developed as a hub of business and scientific research. Many international venture-capital firms, scientific research institutes and high-tech companies are headquartered in the city.
Tel Aviv receives about 2.5 million international visitors annually, the fifth-most-visited city in the Middle East & Africa. Museums include Beit Hatfutsot, whose multimedia exhibits illustrate the history of Jewish communities worldwide. The Eretz Israel Museum covers the country’s archaeology, folklore and crafts, and features an on-site excavation of 12th-century-B.C. ruins.
Tel Aviv has become an international center of fashion and design.
Tel Aviv is known as a focal point in the high-tech concentration known as the Silicon Wadi.
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