Many people mistakenly believe that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel, but in fact, the status of the main city is reserved for Jerusalem. Tel Aviv is the country's second-largest city and is located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
The climate here is typically Mediterranean, with snowless winters and hot (even arid) long summers. The population of Tel Aviv today is about 500 thousand people - about 90% Jews, 4% Arabs, and other nationalities.
Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as a quarter of the ancient city of Jaffa Ahuzat-Bayit. The city received its modern name in 1910 - the residents of the quarter by a majority vote renamed Ahuzat-Bayit to Tel Aviv ("Hill of Revival").
As the years passed, a large city grew out of the neighborhood and became part of Palestine. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, German Jews began arriving in Tel Aviv in droves; before that, a large percentage of the city's population had come from Poland.
The city became the center of the Jewish community in Palestine, and after Israel's independence in 1948, it was here that the parliament (Knesset) met for the first time. In 1950, Jaffa and Tel Aviv merged into a single city, which became the economic and cultural center of the country.
