Beersheba

Industrial city in the south of Israel, 80 km/50 mi from Jerusalem; population (1997 est) 160,364. It has been a settlement since Stone Age times and is now the chief centre for the Negev Desert, which has undergone development as an agricultural area through widespread irrigation. Industries include glass, porcelain and textiles, and the manufacture of chemicals.

The covenant of Abraham and Abimelech, King of the Philistines, was made here. According to the 4th-century theologian and scholar Eusebius, it was in his time a prosperous market town and possessed a Roman garrison. In early Christian times bishops of Beersheba are occasionally mentioned, but by the 14th century the town had lost all importance. The wells played a prominent part in the Biblical history of the Hebrew patriarchs, Beersheba being the scene of Hagar's trial and Ishmael's miraculous preservation, of Abraham's covenant with Abimelech, and of Jacob's setting forth on his journey to Haran. Two of the wells still hold water and five others have been discovered. In World War I, Beersheba formed the left anchor of a Turkish defensive line and was a major strategic objective for the British. English field marshal Edmund Allenby led a successful assault on the city in October 1917.

Beersheba is home to both the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (1965) and of the Negev Institute for Arid Zone Research (1957).