'the Lowlands') or Shfela (Modern Hebrew: הַשְּׁפֵלָה, romanized: haŠfelá), or the Judaean Foothills[1] (Modern Hebrew: שְׁפֵלַת יְהוּדָה, romanized: Šfelát Yəhūdá), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel stretching over 10–15 km (6.2–9.3 mi) between the Judaean Mountains and the Coastal Plain.

Today the Shfela is largely rural with many farms, but the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Rehovot, Beit Shemesh, and Kiryat Gat roughly surround it.

During the Bar Kokhba revolt, hollowed out hills were connected to form elaborate bunker systems for the combat with the Romans.

The Shfela is bordered to the northeast by the Samarian Hills and the north-south Afek Pass at Rosh HaAyin-Antipatris (near the east-west Ayalon Valley) and Rishon LeZion in the northwest, and in the south by the northern Negev (the Nahal Shikma [he] area).

[7][2] Topographically, it represents the transition from the higher and more rugged Jerusalem and Hebron Mountains, whose foothills it forms, and the Coastal Plain.

[3] Where they reach the Shfela, the rivers can flow over substantial distances along the border between the mountains and the hills, forming longitudinal valleys.

[10] During the early Iron Age, the population of what has been widely believed to be a Canaanite enclave[11] between the rising centres of both coastal Philistia and the Israelite/Judahite highlands, went into decline, though a string of settlements survived on the eastern edge.

The Shephela flourished during the Hellenistic period, was strongly affected by the First Jewish–Roman War (66–70) and was largely depopulated of Jews as a result of the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136).