Petah Tikva

Petah Tikva

פתח תקווה
بتاح تكفا
Petah Tikva פתח תקווה ; بتاح تكفا
City
	Koblenz Square
	Coat of arms
	Nickname: Em HaMoshavot
	Petah Tikva Location in Israel
	Coordinates: 32°05′19.78″N 34°53′10.8″E / 32.0888278°N 34.886333°E
Country	Israel
District	Central District
Founded	1878
Government
• Mayor	Zvi Lustig
Area
• Total	35.868 km2 (13.849 sq mi)
Elevation	15 m (49 ft)
Population (2015)
• Total	230,984
• Density	6,440/km2 (16,700/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (Israel Standard Time (IST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (Israel Summer Time (IDT))
Area code	+972 (Israel) +3 (Central District)
Website	Petah Tikva Website

Petah Tikva (Hebrew: פתח תקווה, Arabic: بتاح تكفا , meaning opening of hope; other spellings: Petah Tiqwa (official) and Petach Tikvah (unofficial)) is a city in western Israel. is a city in the Central District of Israel. It is 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) east from Tel Aviv and belongs to the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. About 231,000 people were living there in 2015, making it the fifth-largest city of the country. About 70,000 of them are Orthodox Jews.

European Orthodox Jews established the settlement in 1878 and named it Petah Tikva after a prophecy of Hosea. Because of this, it is the oldest agricultural settlement erected by Zionist Jews in the 19th century and therefore nicknamed Em HaMoshavot, meaning mother of the moshavot. The new settlement was attacked by raiders in 1886, a few guards volunteered to keep it safe from raiders, in total the settlement had six guards, the last and most famous out of them is Avraham Shapira, his original house stand til this day intact. It obtained city status in 1937.

The city is low-lying. The Yarkon River flows north of Petah Tikva.

Petah Tikva comes second in a list of cities in Israel industrial activities. Many high-tech and communications companies have their headquarters here. The city used to be surrounded by a lot of citrus plantations but due to urban expansion this is no longer the case.

The city has about 300 synagogues, the same number of educational institutions, and six hospitals, among them the Rabin Medical Center.

Several highways are close by, like Highway 4 in the west, Trans-Samaria Highway in the north, and Trans-Israel Highway in the east.

Yarkon Cemetery is in Petah Tikva and is the most important cemetery of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area.