- Mayor : Meir ITZCHAK HA’LEVI
- Website : www.eilat.muni.il
Eilat, no other place like it !!
Eilat is an international city of tourism, a city of eternal sunshine where all Israelis love to vacation.
Eilat, located at the southernmost point of Israel, is unique and special.
Due to its location and a strategic crossroads between three continents and four countries, with a port serving as a gateway to Asian and African markets and a brand new International Airport, Eilat is known as a transit city.
Eilat’s population is 65,000 residents and is welcoming approximately 3 million tourists annually.
Eilat is also a “Smart City”, being a leader in energy efficiency, as 75% of the city’s daytime electricity is supplied by renewable energy.
The city is leading many projects in the areas of green and smart transport, renewable energy and energy efficiency, environment protection and resilience.
It is a city of business opportunities and tax breaks, with an outstanding education system that has won the national education prize, a university and one of Israel’s leading community center networks. Eilat offers superior quality of life to its residents. It’s a great place to live.
Today, Eilat is a modern and high-quality city. Its educational achievements, quiet surroundings and development offer a high quality of life to local residents. Eilat’s location, natural resources, entertainment venues, hotels, attractions, shopping centers and wonderful weather throughout the year, all offer a pleasant and enjoyable vacation experience for its visitors.
Eilat has been designated as a free trade zone since 1985; and by virtue of this law, its residents are entitled to VAT exemption and tax benefits of 10%. Eilat is also home to colleges, research institutes, and an outstanding education system. Consequently, Eilat received the Ministry of Education’s prestigious Municipal Education Prize for 2011, one of five cities in Israel. The Marine Education and Sports Center that trains champions, a beautiful music conservatory and music center, sports parks, green gardens, magical beaches and a breathtaking bay are all part of Eilat’s natural landscape.
The city is built on an alluvial fan and is surrounded by mountains. From the west, there are Granite Mountains that rise 800 meters above sea level; from the east are the Red Mountains that soar to a height of 1,500 meters.
The area is rich in sediment rocks and igneous rocks, which create a unique and diverse landscape and an expansive area for research in this field. The Arava and Gulf of Eilat are part of the Syro-African rift valley, which stretches from the equator in Africa in the south to Turkey in the north. The tropical and deep sea, with its clear blue water, is a natural habitat for thousands of beautiful fish and coral that create a rich and stunning underwater world. The water temperature is perfect for swimming and diving all year long. The water’s salinity level is one of the highest of the world’s open seas and reaches 4.1%.
The water flow that penetrates through the Straits of Tiran flows year round in a northerly direction along the Saudi coast. Due to this mixture, the water along the entire length of the Gulf is warm. Along its western side, the flow changes to a counterclockwise direction back to the southern area. Land breezes blow from northeast to northwest. Average rainfall, less than 25 mm, is characterized by brief showers.
There is a tendency toward flooding due to the ground’s high impermeability. The Eilat summer season is long and lasts about nine months, with an average minimum temperature of 17.6 and maximum of 35.3 degrees Celsius.