Beersheba (Hebrew: בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, romanized: Bəʾēr Ševaʿ, /bɪərˈʃiːbə/ / beer-SHEE-bə), officially Be'er-Sheva,[2][a] is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel.

[3] The Biblical site of Beersheba is Tel Be'er Sheva, lying some 4 km distant from the modern city, which was established at the start of the 20th century by the Ottomans.

[12] Beersheba is mainly dealt with in the Hebrew Bible in connection with the Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac, who both dug a well and close peace treaties with King Abimelech of Gerar at the site.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Beersheba was founded when Abraham and Abimelech settled their differences over a well of water and made a covenant (see Genesis 21:22–34).

It long remained a watering place and small trade centre for the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Negev, despite Turkish efforts at town planning and development around 1900.

[16] Findings unearthed at Tel Be'er Sheva, an archaeological site east of modern-day Beersheba, suggest the region has been inhabited since the 4th millennium BC (between 5000 and 6,000 years ago).

[17] Tel Be'er Sheva, an archaeological site containing the ruins of an ancient town believed to have been the Biblical Beersheba, lies a few kilometers east of the modern city.

It is believed to have been the first planned settlement in the region, and is also noteworthy for its elaborate water system; in particular, a huge cistern carved out of the rock beneath the town.

[dubious – discuss][18] Around 64-63 BC, the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus made Beersheba, known as Birosaba, the southern part of the Judea province.

[21] In the following years, the town served as front-line defence against Nabatean attacks and was on the limes belt, which in this region is attributed to the time of Vespasian (1st century AD).

The inhabitants, which consisted of Nabataeans, Jews and other ethnicities, spoke primarily Greek and lived from olive oil production, viticulture, agricultural and other trades.

[23] After the reforms of Diocletian, the town became part of the province of Palaestina Tertia and grew to an approximate size of 60 hectares during its peak in the 6th century.

[31] The first governor (kaymakam), Isma'il Kamal Bey, lived in a tent lent by the local sheikh until the government house (Saraya) was built.

On October 31, 1917, three months after taking Rafah, General Allenby's troops breached the line of Turkish defense between Gaza and Beersheba.

The British constructed a railway between Rafah and Beersheba in October 1917 which opened to the public in May 1918, serving the Negev and settlements south of Mount Hebron.

[49] The 1938 village survey did not cover Beersheba due to the area's largely nomadic population and the Rural Property Tax Ordinance not being applied there.

[55] The town was subject to large-scale looting by the Haganah, and by December, in one calculation, the total number of Arabs driven out from Beersheva and surrounding areas reached 30,000 with many ending up in Jordan as refugees.

[28] Beersheba was deemed strategically important due to its location with a reliable water supply and at a major crossroads, northeast to Hebron and Jerusalem, east to the Dead Sea and al Karak, south to Aqaba, west to Gaza and southwest to Al-Auja and the border with Egypt.

One such project is the Beersheba River Walk, a 900-acre (3.6-square-kilometre) riverfront park stretching along 8 kilometers of the riverside and containing a 15-acre (6.1-hectare) manmade boating lake, a 12,000-seat amphitheater, green spaces, playgrounds, and a bridge along the route of the city's Mekorot water pipes.

Among them is Kanyon Beersheba, a 115,000-square-metre (1,240,000-square-foot) ecologically planned mall with pools for collecting rainwater and lighting generated by solar panels on the roof.

The hospital will be a 345-acre (140 ha) complex that will feature 1,900 beds, commerce, hotel, alternative medicine, and paramedical services, and research centers, with the possibility of apartment units for medical faculty employees, students, and senior housing.

One of the primary goals of the plan is to boost connections between neighborhoods through a continuous network of streets which will be shaded and give preference to public transport and pedestrians.

The Beersheba Valley has been populated for thousands of years, as it has available water, which flows from the Hebron hills in the winter and is stored underground in vast quantities.

Beersheba is surrounded by several satellite towns, including Omer, Lehavim, and Meitar, and the Bedouin localities of Rahat, Tel as-Sabi, and Lakiya.

[7] A large high-tech park was built near the Be'er Sheva North Railway Station in 2012[119] and a fifth commercial building begun to be constructed.

Deutsche Telekom, Elbit Systems, EMC, Lockheed Martin, Ness Technologies, WeWork and RAD Data Communications have opened facilities there, as has a cyberincubator run by Jerusalem Venture Partners.

Over the years, the Sinfonietta has developed a broad repertoire of symphonic works, concerti for solo instruments and large choral productions, among them Handel's Israel in Egypt, masses by Schubert and Mozart, Rossini's "Stabat Mater" and Vivaldi's "Gloria".

World-famous artists have appeared as soloists with the Sinfonietta, including Pinchas Zukerman, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Shlomo Mintz, Gary Karr, and Paul Tortelier.

Until 2012, the railway line to Beersheba used a slow single-track configuration with sharp curves and many level crossings which limited train speed.

The rebuilding effort cost NIS 2.8 billion and significantly reduced the travel time and greatly increased the train frequency to and from Tel Aviv and Kiryat Motzkin to Beersheba.