PORTFOLIO | FEATURES | TEL AVIV

Tel Aviv is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline  and it is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, home to 3.3 million residents as of 2010. Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa . Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings.

Tel Aviv is classified as a beta+ world city, alongside cities such as Barcelona and San Francisco. Its beaches, parks, bars, cafés,restaurants, shopping, cosmopolitan lifestyle and 24-hour culture have made it a popular tourist destination for overseas and domestic visitors alike, contributing to its reputation as "the city that never sleeps" with over 1.5 million foreign tourists annually. Tel Aviv is the country's financial capital and a major performing arts and business center.

Tel Aviv has been named the third "hottest city for 2011" (behind New York City and Tangier) by Lonely Planet, third-best in the Middle East & Africa (behind Jerusalem and Cape Town) by Travel + Leisure magazine, and the ninth-best beach city in the world by National Geographic.