Current Time in Haifa, Israel

Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, built on the slopes of Mount Carmel above a wide bay on the Mediterranean coast. The city rises in tiers from the port and industrial flats at sea level through the older neighbourhoods of Hadar to the wooded ridge of the Carmel Centre some three hundred metres higher, and the views from the upper streets across the bay towards Acre and the hills of the Galilee are among the finest in the country. The Mediterranean climate brings hot dry summers cooled by sea breezes and mild, rainy winters.

Around two hundred and eighty five thousand people live in Haifa, and it is the third largest city in Israel. Its port is the country's principal maritime gateway, handling containers, cruise ships and naval vessels, and the surrounding bay area contains refineries, chemical works and a growing concentration of technology companies.

The site has been inhabited since antiquity, and the ancient settlement of Shikmona lay on the shore, while Elijah's Cave at the foot of the mountain is venerated by Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze alike. The Crusaders held the town, and the modern city dates chiefly from 1761 when the Ottoman ruler Dhaher el Omar refounded it in a more defensible position. German Templers established a colony of tiled roofed houses in 1868 whose main avenue survives as the German Colony, one of the most attractive streets in Israel. Under the British Mandate Haifa became a major industrial port and the terminus of an oil pipeline from Iraq.

The city's most famous sight is the Baháʼí World Centre. The golden domed Shrine of the Báb stands halfway up the mountain in the middle of nineteen terraced gardens that descend the slope in a perfect axis for almost a kilometre, and the complex was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008. Haifa is the spiritual and administrative centre of the Baháʼí Faith, and the gardens are visited by many thousands of pilgrims and tourists each year.

Other landmarks include the Stella Maris Carmelite monastery on the headland, the Hecht Museum, the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art and the Madatech science museum housed in the original Technion building. Wadi Nisnas, an Arab quarter of narrow lanes and markets, hosts the Holiday of Holidays festival each December, a celebration of Hanukkah, Christmas and Ramadan together that has become a symbol of the city's reputation for coexistence between its Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze and Baháʼí communities.

Haifa has an unusual public transport system. The Carmelit, an underground funicular with six stations, is one of the smallest metro systems in the world, and a cable car climbs from the shore to Stella Maris. Buses, a light rail line and a well used national railway connect the city to Tel Aviv and Acre.

The Technion, founded in 1912, is Israel's oldest university and one of the world's leading institutes of technology, and the University of Haifa sits on the Carmel ridge, together making the city a centre of research and high technology.