Geography and Landmarks
At more than 1,400 feet below sea level, this body of water bordered by Israel and Jordan is the lowest land-based point on Earth.
What is the Dead Sea?
Israel officially declared its independence on May 14th of this year, following the end of the British Mandate.
Who is David Ben-Gurion?
Modern Hebrew and this regional language are both Afroasiatic Semitic languages written from right to left.
What is Arabic?
Revered by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, this city has been a sacred spiritual center for over 3,000 years.
What is Jerusalem?
Israel's dominant high-tech sector and concentration of tech startups earned the country this alliterative national nickname.
What is Silicon Wadi?
Located on the Mediterranean coast, this vibrant metropolis and financial center is Israel's second-most populous city.
What is Tel Aviv?
Often called the "Founding Father" of modern Israel, he served as the nation's first Prime Minister.
Who is David Ben-Gurion?
Meaning "order" in Hebrew, this ceremonial meal is held on the first night or two of Passover.
What is a Seder?
Discovered in caves near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea between 1946 and 1956, these ancient manuscripts include the oldest known biblical texts.
What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Developed in Israel by Simcha Blass in the 1960s, this agricultural technique maximizes crop yield while conserving water in arid environments.
What is drip irrigation?
Hebrew for "head" or "top" of the grottos, this striking white chalk cliff formation sits on the Mediterranean coast at Israel's northern border with Lebanon.
What is Rosh HaNikra?
Elected in 1969, she was Israel's first—and to date, only—female Prime Minister.
Who is Golda Meir?
Named after a Hebrew slang word for a prickly pear cactus, this term refers to any Jew born in Israel—rough on the outside, sweet on the inside.
What is a Tzabar (or Sabra)?
This retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the holiest site where Jews are permitted to pray.
What is the Western Wall (or Kotel)?
This navigational software application, which relies on crowd-sourced traffic data, was founded in Israel in 2007 before being acquired by Google in 2013.
What is Waze?
Situated in the Judean Desert, this iconic ancient mesa fortress built by Herod the Great was the site of a famous Roman siege in 73 CE.
What is Masada?
Signed in 1978, these accords brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter led directly to the 1979 Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty.
What are the Camp David Accords?
Widely enjoyed across North Africa and the Middle East, this popular Israeli breakfast dish consists of poached eggs in a spiced tomato and chili pepper sauce.
What is Shakshuka?
Located in the Old City of Jerusalem, this landmark church stands on the site where tradition holds Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected.
What is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre?
Developed by Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman—earning him the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry—this non-repeating crystal structure was once thought physically impossible.
What is a quasicrystal?
The largest of three erosion craters (makhteshim) in the Negev Desert, this massive natural landform is over 25 miles long.
What is Makhtesh Ramon (or Ramon Crater)?
Known as the "Visionary of the State" this Austro-Hungarian journalist organized the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897.
Who is Theodor Herzl?
This Israeli author and anti-war activist won the 2002 Frankfurt Book Fair Peace Prize and wrote acclaimed novels like A Tale of Love and Darkness.
Who is Amos Oz?
Discovered at Tel Dan in northern Israel in 1993, a 9th-century BCE basalt stele fragment contains the earliest non-biblical reference to this royal lineage.
What is the House of David?
First launched operationally in 2011, this mobile all-weather air defense system was developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to intercept short-range rockets.
What is the Iron Dome?