Old City
The Old City (Hebrew: עיר העתיקה, Ir HaAtika) is the historical center of Beersheba. Based on the core of the old Ottoman town, it was expanded by the British during the Mandate era. Street signs in English from the Mandate era are still visible on many street corners. Laid out in a grid pattern, it consists mostly of one- and two-floor stone buildings, although some taller buildings were recently built. The old Turkish buildings dating back about 100 years are mostly in a state of neglect although some exceptions can be found where private individuals or organizations have renovated them. Until the late 1990s, the Old City was the commercial hub of Beersheba. But since the opening of the large Kenyon HaNegev mall near the Central Bus Station (and a number of smaller neighborhood-malls) many of the leading chain stores have moved out. There are some sites of historical interest in the Old City: Abraham's Well, the Negev Museum of Art, Allenby Garden, the Turkish Railway Station, the British War Cemetery and the Aljama Mosque.
Read more about this topic: Neighborhoods Of Beersheba
Famous quotes containing the word city:
“The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents.... It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community.... It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“... city areas with flourishing diversity sprout strange and unpredictable uses and peculiar scenes. But this is not a drawback of diversity. This is the point ... of it.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)