![Every Day Life in Haifa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Every_Day_Life_in_Haifa.JPG)
The Bay of Haifa or Haifa Bay ( he, מפרץ חיפה, ''Mifratz Heifa''), formerly Bay of Acre, is a bay along the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
coast of Northern
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. Haifa Bay is Israel's only
natural harbor
A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...
on the Mediterranean.
''Haifa Bay'' also refers one of Haifa's nine quarters, covering the overwhelmingly industrial area northeast of Downtown and south of
Kiryat Hayim.
Geography
Fed by the
Kishon River
The Kishon River ( he, נחל הקישון, ; ar, نهر المقطع, , or , – ''the river of slaughter'' or ''dismemberment''; alternative Arabic, ) is a river in Israel that flows into the Mediterranean Sea near the city of Haifa.
Course ...
, the cities of
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
and
Acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
mark its southern and northern capes, while its centre is lined with
dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
s and the suburban
Krayot
The Krayot ( he, הקריות, "townships") (plural of ''Kirya'') are a cluster of four small cities and two neighbourhoods of Haifa founded in the 1930s on the outskirts of the city of Haifa, Israel, in the Haifa Bay area.
The Krayot include Ki ...
neighbourhoods.
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ( he, הַר הַכַּרְמֶל, Har haKarmel; ar, جبل الكرمل, Jabal al-Karmil), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias ( ar, link=no, جبل مار إلياس, Jabal Mār Ilyās, lit=Mount Saint Elias/Elijah), is a c ...
rises from the southern edge, while the mountains of the
Western Galilee
Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galil ...
run up to the shore at the northern boundary. The
Zvulun Valley
The Zevulun Valley or Zvulun Valley ( he, עמק זבולון, Emek Zvulun) is a fertile coastal territory in the North of Israel, part of the Israeli coastal plain along the Haifa Bay.
The length of the valley is 14 km, with its maximum wid ...
, a coastal plain, runs 14 km along the coast of the bay between these mountainous boundaries.
The
Port of Haifa
The Port of Haifa ( he, נמל חיפה) is the largest of Israel's three major international seaports, the others being the Port of Ashdod, and the Port of Eilat. It has a natural deep-water harbor, which operates all year long, and serves both pa ...
lies along part of its southeastern coastline.
History
In the 1920s, several
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
im were established in the
Bat Galim neighborhood on Haifa Bay in the wake of
British Mandatory budgeting for development of the area. With the coast of Palestine lacking a modern harbor, the British authorities drew up plans for new port facilities. The Haifa Bay Development Company, founded in February 1925 to further these plans, could not recruit the necessary capital, so the transaction was made by the
Palestine Land Development Company
Israel Land Development Company (ILDC) ( he, הכשרת הישוב, Hachsharat HaYishuv) is one of Israel's largest conglomerates, with fields including real estate, construction, energy and hotels. It was acquired in 1987 by Yaakov Nimrodi.
Hist ...
.
The area was acquired by the Jewish community as part of the
Sursock Purchase
The Sursock Purchase of the Jezreel Valley and Haifa Bay, as well as other parts of Mandatory Palestine, was the largest Jewish land purchase in Palestine during the period of early Jewish immigration.
The Jezreel Valley was considered the most f ...
. The land was purchased from the
Sursock family
The Sursock family (also spelled Sursuq) is a Greek Orthodox Christian family from Lebanon, and used to be one of the most important families of Beirut. Having originated in Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire, the family has lived in Bei ...
, which had bought it from the
Ottoman government in 1872. The 45,000
dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
tract was known as the Jidro lands. The company also acquired a 99-year concession for an additional 12,000 dunams of adjoining land, bringing the total area to 57,000. The land changed hands several times due to financial difficulties, eventually becoming the property of the Bayside Land Company, established in cooperation with the
Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subseq ...
. In 1928, the company commissioned
Patrick Abercrombie
Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (; 6 June 1879 – 23 March 1957) was an English regional and town planner. Abercrombie was an academic during most of his career, and prepared one city plan and several regional studies prior to the Second Worl ...
to draw up a development plan.
In 1934, the Phoenicia glass factory was established in Haifa Bay. The company moved to
Yeruham
Yeruham ( he, יְרוֹחַם, ''Yeroham'') is a town ( local council) in the Southern District of Israel, in the Negev desert. It covers 38,584 dunams (~38.6 km²), and had a population of in . It is named after the Biblical Jeroham.
Un ...
in 1968, and is still operating today.
Ports and industrial zone
![Haifa_Oil_Refineries_Cooling_Towers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Haifa_Oil_Refineries_Cooling_Towers.jpg)
The Port of Haifa and a private port operated by
Israel Shipyards
Israel Shipyards is one of the largest shipbuilding and repair facilities in the eastern Mediterranean. The company also operates the first and only privately owned port in Israel.
The company’s facilities are located at the Kishon Port (part ...
are located in Haifa Bay. In 2017 they handled a combined total of 32 million tons of cargo, making the port complex one of the largest in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Bay region is also home to an extensive
industrial zone containing various factories, workshops, large shore-based oil refineries, chemical, metals fabrication and power plants and other industrial and storage facilities. The 76-meter high twin
cooling tower
A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat an ...
s of the
Haifa oil refinery
BAZAN Group, (ORL or BAZAN, ), formerly Oil Refineries Ltd., is an oil refining and petrochemicals company located in Haifa Bay, Israel. It operates the largest oil refinery in the country. ORL has a total oil refining capacity of approximatel ...
are a nationally recognized icon for the city. For this reason, they have been left intact, though they are no longer actually used since technological advancements in refining have made them obsolete.
Environmental concerns
Historically the concentration of industry in the area has also led to pollution of the air, bay and a higher incidence of cancer in the surrounding communities. In response, since the late 2000s decade the
Israeli Environment Protection ministry, in conjunction with area industries, have implemented a comprehensive pollution reduction, monitoring and reporting programme for the region. This effort, together with major plants in the region switching from using heavy fuels to
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
as their primary fuel source starting in 2013 has led to a significant reduction in air pollution. The ministry estimates that between 2009 and 2014 overall air pollution in the Bay area has been reduced by 70%, though the overall concentration of heavy industry in the area means that air pollution is still higher as compared to other regions in Israel.
References
External links
*
{{Coord, 32, 49, 23.01, N, 35, 1, 26.04, E, display=title
Regions of Israel
Bays of the Mediterranean
Bodies of water of Israel
Geography of Haifa
Economy of Haifa
History of Haifa
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...