Judaea extends from the Mediterranean in the west to the Jordan and the Dead Sea in the east and from the river Yarqon (which flows into the sea at Tel Aviv) in the north to a line between Gaza and En Gedi in the south. It is made up of the Shefela plain in the west, the central uplands (Har Yehuda) and the Judaean Desert (Midbar Yehuda) to the east. The southern part reaches a height of 1,020m/3,347ft at Hebron, the northern part 1,016m/3,333ft in the Bet El Hills.
Judaea is the most southerly of the three Biblical regions west of the Jordan (the others being Galilee and Samaria). In the south it was bounded in the time of Christ by Idumaea; it is now bordered by the Negev.
The northern part of the Judaean coastal plain has the highest population density in Israel. In the south, where the plain has been enlarged by deposits of sand carried down by the Nile, citrus fruits are grown, and farther inland wheat and vegetables. The Judaean Hills fall steeply down to the Dead Sea and form a rain barrier, so that the area to the east has become a desert which can be used only for grazing. Exceptions to this are a number of oases, like those of En Gedi on the Dead Sea and Jericho. Lying below sea level, the oases have a warm climate in which plants of many different species flourish.
History
Around 1200 B.C. the Philistines established themselves in the coastal plain, while the hills were occupied by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which David united in a single kingdom after the death of Saul. Later David was recognized as king of all twelve tribes; but after the death of his son Solomon the ten northern tribes formed the kingdom of Israel and the two southern tribes the kingdom of Judah, which came to an end in 586 B.C. with the Babylonian conquest. Under Roman rule (from 63 B.C.) Judaea, along with Galilee and Samaria, fell within the territory ruled by Hyrcanus II and Herod, and thereafter was governed by Roman procurators.
The Diaspora of the Jews began after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. In the fourth century Judaea was largely Christianized; then in the seventh century the process of Islamisation began. Small Jewish communities still survived, however, in Jerusalem and in Hebron and the surrounding area. After the War of Independence in 1948-49 western Judaea became part of the newly founded state of Israel and the eastern part of the region, with Hebron as its center, passed to Jordan, which also received much of Samaria. In 1967 these territories, together with East Jerusalem, were occupied by Israeli troops
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