Port at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba,
Israel's only outlet to the Red Sea;
population (1982) 19,500. Founded in 1948, on
the site of the Biblical Elath, it is linked
by road with Beersheba. There are copper
mines and granite quarries nearby, and a
major geophysical observatory opened in 1968
is 16 km/10 mi to the N.