ISRAEL

ISRAEL / יִשְׂרָאֵל‎ - إِسْرَائِيل

Modern ports.
Port of Elat.
First stamp in a set of 3, issued on 19.02.1969.
Face value: 0.30 Israeli lira.
Printing: Photogravure.
Print: 1,648,000 copies.
Size: 61 x 26 mm.

Catalogs
- Israel Philatelic Federation No. 449.
- Michel No. 433.
- Scott No. 378.
- StampWorld No. 432.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 405.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 371.

Elat or Eilat (Hebrew: אֵילַת; Arabic: إِيلَات) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of 52,299 in 2019, a busy 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 name Elat was given to Umm al-Rashrash (أم الرشراش) in 1949 by the Committee for the Designation of Place-Names in the Negev. The name refers to Elath, a location mentioned in the Hebrew Bible that is thought to be located across the border in modern Jordan. During the British Mandate era, a British police post existed in the area, which was known as Umm Al-Rashrash. The area was designated as part of the Jewish state in the 1947 UN Partition Plan. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the abandoned police post was seized without a fight on March 10, 1949, as part of Operation Uvda. This marked the end of Israel's war for independence. Eilat's airport was built in 1949 and the port opened in 1955. Elat began to develop rapidly after the Suez Crisis in 1956, when the tourist industry began to flourish in the city. In the stamp you can also see the Elat Mountains (Hebrew: הרי אילת Harei Eilat), with a maximum elevation of 899 m (2,949 ft).