26 Facts About Beersheba

1.

Beersheba is mainly dealt with in the Hebrew Bible in connection with the Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac, who both dig a well and close peace treaties with King Abimelech of Gerar at the site.

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2.

Beersheba set aside seven lambs to swear that it was he that had dug the well and no one else.

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3.

Beersheba is further mentioned in following Bible passages: Isaac built an altar in Beersheba .

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4.

Beersheba was the territory of the tribe of Simeon and Judah .

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5.

Findings unearthed at Tel Sheva, an archaeological site east of modern-day Beersheba, suggest the region has been inhabited since the 4th millennium BC.

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6.

Beersheba was described in the Madaba Map and Eusebius of Caesarea as a large village with a Roman garrison.

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7.

In 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine proposed that Beersheba be included within the Jewish state in their partition plan for Palestine.

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8.

Beersheba was deemed strategically important due to its location with a reliable water supply and at a major crossroads, northwest to Hebron and Jerusalem, east to the Dead Sea and al Karak, south to Aqaba, west to Gaza and southwest to Al-Auja and the border with Egypt.

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9.

Beersheba is located on the northern edge of the Negev desert 115 kilometres south-east of Tel Aviv and 120 kilometres south-west of Jerusalem.

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10.

The Beersheba Valley has been populated for thousands of years, as it has available water, which flows from the Hebron hills in the winter and is stored underground in vast quantities.

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11.

The main river in Beersheba is Nahal Beersheva, a wadi that floods in the winter.

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12.

Beersheba is surrounded by a number of satellite towns, including Omer, Lehavim, and Meitar, and the Bedouin localities of Rahat, Tel as-Sabi, and Lakiya.

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13.

Beersheba has a hot desert climate with Mediterranean influences.

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14.

Largest employers in Beersheba are Soroka Medical Center, the municipality, Israel Defense Forces and Ben-Gurion University.

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15.

Beersheba is emerging as a high-tech center, with an emphasis on cyber security.

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16.

Beersheba is home to one of Israel's major universities, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, located on an urban campus in the city .

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17.

Today, Beersheba is divided into seventeen residential neighborhoods in addition to the Old City and Ramot, an umbrella neighborhood of four sub-districts.

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18.

Beersheba is the home base of the Israel Sinfonietta, founded in 1973.

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19.

In 1906, during the Ottoman era, the Great Mosque of Beersheba was built with donations collected from the Bedouin residents in the Negev.

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20.

Beersheba is the central transport hub of southern Israel, served by roads, railways and air.

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21.

Beersheba is connected to Tel Aviv via Highway 40, the second longest highway in Israel, which passes to the east of the city and is called the Beersheba bypass because it allows travellers from the north to go to southern locations, avoiding the more congested city center.

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22.

Metrodan Beersheba, established in 2003, had a fleet of 90 buses and operates 19 lines in the city between 2003 and 2016, most of which depart from the Beersheba Central Bus Station.

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23.

Until 2012, the railway line to Beersheba used a slow single-track configuration with sharp curves and many level crossings which limited train speed.

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24.

Beersheba has two other local clubs, Maccabi Be'er Sheva and F C Be'er Sheva, a continuation of the defunct Beitar Avraham Be'er Sheva.

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25.

Beersheba has become Israel's national chess center; thanks to Soviet immigration, it is home to the largest number of chess grandmasters of any city in the world.

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26.

Beersheba is home to a rugby team, whose senior and youth squads have won several national titles .

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