PikiWiki Israel 29331 Sunrise club hotel in Kibbutz Eilot

Eilot () is the southernmost

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. It is located in the

Aravah The Arabah/Araba () or Aravah/Arava () is a loosely defined geographic area in the Negev Desert, south of the Dead Sea drainage basin, basin, which forms part of the border between Israel to the west and Jordan to the east. The old meaning, wh ...

Valley, near the border with

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

. Eilot is less than a kilometer north of

Eilat Eilat ( , ; ; ) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port of Eilat, port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan as the Gulf of Aqaba. The c ...

, and just over 3 kilometers north of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

. It falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Eilot Regional Council. In it had a population of . It is noted for its date

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

, though

vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...

s, other

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

are major industries.

Etymology

The origin of the name of the settlement is in the biblical city of Eilat, near Ezion-Geber, also called "Eilot". It was also mentioned in the

Books of Kings The Book of Kings (, ''Sefer (Hebrew), Sēfer Malik, Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of ancient Is ...

: "And

King Solomon King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by f ...

made a

navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

ships A ship is a large vessel that travels the world's oceans and other navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, ...

in Ezion-Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the

, in the land of

Edom Edom (; Edomite language, Edomite: ; , lit.: "red"; Akkadian language, Akkadian: , ; Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom that stretched across areas in the south of present-day Jordan and Israel. Edom and the Edomi ...

." (). The Eloth mentioned in the verse is likely close to the present-day location of Kibbutz Eilot. In July 14, 1962, it was agreed by a majority of votes to determine the new name for the kibbutz.

History

Kibbutz Eilot was begun by a group of 15 young people who descended to Eilat on June 16, 1955, on the advice of Yitzhak Tabenkin, who believed that kibbutzim should be established throughout Israel. The descent to Eilat was contrary to the views held by the government and the Jewish Agency at that time. The members settled in the three huts of Umm Rashresh, on the shore of the Red Sea, and engaged in agriculture in preparation for the establishment of a permanent settlement. In 1959, it was decided to establish the permanent location of the kibbutz in Nahal Roded, on the site of a former Arab village and where fertile lands were found. It began with the construction of buildings and members of the kibbutz moved to the site at the end of 1962. The official

Aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...

ceremony took place in December 1962, the kibbutz then numbering 60 people, half of whom were members of the kibbutz and the other half reinforcements sent by the United Kibbutz Movement. They were allocated 700 dunams for agricultural cultivation, of which 300 dunams began to grow dates, vegetables and fruits. There was also an industrial laundry which served the Eilat hotels, ships docked at the

port of Eilat The Port of Eilat () is the only Israeli port on the Red Sea, located at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. This strategic location has given it outsized importance despite being remote from the country's main population centers, and access ...

and nearby Kibbutz Yotvata. The kibbutz also had a commercial fishing operation for a time, and set up a dairy farm and chicken runs. They also established a factory for the production of

transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

s. Today tourism is also a major industry.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Eilat Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1963 Populated places in Southern District (Israel) 1963 establishments in Israel