title: Seiðr

text: Practitioners may have been religious leaders of the Viking community and usually required the help of other practitioners to invoke their deities, gods or spirits. As they are described in a number of other Scandinavian sagas, Saga of Erik the Red in particular, the practitioners connected with the spiritual realm through chanting and prayer. Viking texts suggest that the ritual was used in times of inherent crisis, as a tool for seeing into the future, and for cursing and hexing one's enemies. With that said, it could have been used for great good or destructive evil, as well as for daily guidance.


title: Seiðr

text: One author, Neil Price, argues that it was very likely that some parts of the practice involved sexual acts. Scholars have highlighted that the staffs have phallic epithets in various Icelandic sagas.


title: Seiðr

text: British archaeologist Neil Price noted that "the realm of sorcery" was present in Óðinn's many aspects.


title: Seiðr

text: In Lokasenna, according to the Poetic Edda, Loki accuses Óðinn of practising , condemning it as an unmanly art (). A justification for this may be found in the , where Snorri opines that following the practice of rendered the practitioner weak and helpless.


title: Seiðr

text: One possible example of in Norse mythology is the prophetic vision given to Óðinn in the Vǫluspá by the "völva" after whom the poem is named. Her vision is not connected explicitly with ; however, the word occurs in the poem in relation to a character called Heiðr (who is traditionally associated with Freyja but may be identical with the ). The interrelationship between the in this account and the Norns, the fates of Norse lore, is strong and striking.


title: Seiðr

text: Another noted mythological practitioner of was Gróa, who attempted to assist Thor, and who in the Svipdagsmál in a poem entitled Grógaldr "Gróa's spell" is summoned from beyond the grave.


title: Seiðr

text: Like Óðinn, the Norse goddess Freyja is also associated with in the surviving literature. In the (c.1225), written by Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson, it is stated that had originally been a practice among the Vanir, but that Freyja, who was herself a member of the Vanir, had introduced it to the Æsir when she joined them.


title: Seiðr

text: Freyja is identified in as an adept of the mysteries of , and it is said that it was she who taught it to Óðinn:


title: Seiðr

text: "Njǫrðr’s daughter was Freyja. She presided over the sacrifice. It was she who first acquainted the Æsir with , which was customary among the Vanir."


title: Seiðr

text: Since the publication of Jacob Grimm's socio-linguistical Deutsches Wörterbuch (p. 638) in 1835, scholarship draws a Balto-Finnic link to , citing the depiction of its practitioners as such in the sagas and elsewhere, and linking to the practices of the noaidi, the patrilineal shamans of the Sami people. However, Indo-European origins are also possible. Note that the Finnish word and the Sami variants of the term refer to a human-shaped tree or a large and strangely-shaped stone or rock and do not necessarily reference magical power. There is a good case, however, that these words do derive ultimately from .


title: Seiðr

text: Strength and courage are traditionally manly qualities that were highly valued in Old Norse societies. This is exemplified in the attitudes surrounding and its place as a feminine craft.


title: Seiðr

text: A woman practicing would sometimes be called "völva", meaning seeress. She would also sometimes be described as or , meaning 'prophecy-woman' and 'magic-woman', respectively. Because was viewed as a feminine practice, any man who engaged in it () was associated with a concept called "ergi", the designation of a man in Norse society who was unmanly, feminine and possibly homosexual.


title: Seiðr

text: Sometimes, female practitioners of the craft would take on young male apprentices, and those who became mothers would teach the practice to their sons. Though not seen as a respectable thing, it was not rare for men to be involved in magic.


title: Seiðr

text: Contemporary Paganism, also referred to as Neo-Paganism, is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of new religious movements, particularly those influenced by the various pagan beliefs of premodern Europe. Several of these contemporary pagan religions draw specifically on the original mediaeval religious beliefs and practices of Anglo-Saxon England as sources of inspiration, adopting such Anglo-Saxon deities as their own.


title: Solar deity

text: A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The Sun is sometimes referred to by its Latin name "Sol" or by its Greek name "Helios". The English word "sun" derives from Proto-Germanic *"sunnǭ".


title: Solar deity

text: Predynasty Egyptian beliefs attribute Atum as the Sun god and Horus as god of the sky and Sun. As the Old Kingdom theocracy gained influence, early beliefs were incorporated into the expanding popularity of Ra and the Osiris-Horus mythology. Atum became Ra-Atum, the rays of the setting Sun. Osiris became the divine heir to Atum's power on Earth and passed his divine authority to his son, Horus. Other early Egyptian myths imply that the Sun is incorporated with the lioness Sekhmet at night and is reflected in her eyes; or that the Sun is found within the cow Hathor during the night and reborn each morning as her son ("bull").


title: Solar deity

text: Mesopotamian Shamash played an important role during the Bronze Age, and "my Sun" was eventually used to address royalty. Similarly, South American cultures have a tradition of Sun worship as with the Incan Inti.


title: Solar deity

text: In Germanic mythology, the solar deity is "Sol;" in Vedic, Surya; and in Greek, Helios (occasionally referred to as Titan) and (sometimes) as Apollo. In Proto-Indo-European mythology the sun appears to be a multilayered figure manifested as a goddess but also perceived as the eye of the sky father Dyeus.


title: Solar deity

text: Three theories exercised great influence on nineteenth and early twentieth century mythography. The theories were the "solar mythology" of Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Max Müller, the tree worship of Mannhardt, and the totemism of J. F. McLennan.


title: Solar deity

text: Müller's "solar mythology" was born from the study of Indo-European languages. Of them, Müller believed Archaic Sanskrit was the closest to the language spoken by the Aryans. Using the Sanskrit names for deities as a base, he applied Grimm's law to names for similar deities from different Indo-European groups to compare their etymological relationships to one another. In the comparison, Müller saw the similarities between the names and used these etymological similarities to explain the similarities between their roles as deities. Through the study, Müller concluded that the Sun having many different names led to the creation of multiple solar deities and their mythologies that were passed down from one group to another.


title: Solar deity

text: R. F. Littledale criticized the Sun myth theory, pointing out that by his own principles, Max Müller was himself only a solar myth. Alfred Lyall delivered another attack on the same theory's assumption that tribal gods and heroes, such as those of Homer, were only reflections of the Sun myth by proving that the gods of certain Rajput clans were actual warriors who founded the clans a few centuries ago, and were the ancestors of the present chieftains.


title: Solar deity

text: The Sun was sometimes envisioned as traveling through the sky in a boat. A prominent example is the solar barque used by Ra in ancient Egyptian mythology. The Neolithic concept of a "solar barge" (also "solar bark", "solar barque", "solar boat" and "sun boat", a mythological representation of the Sun riding in a boat) is found in the later myths of ancient Egypt, with Ra and Horus. Several Egyptian kings were buried with ships that may have been intended to symbolize the solar barque, including the Khufu ship that was buried at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza.


title: Solar deity

text: The concept of the 'solar chariot' is younger than that of the solar barge and is typically Indo-European, corresponding with the Indo-European expansion after the invention of the chariot in the 2nd millennium BC.


title: Solar deity

text: In Chinese culture, the sun chariot is associated with the passage of time. For instance, in the poem "Suffering from the Shortness of Days", Li He of the Tang dynasty is hostile towards the legendary dragons that drew the sun chariot as a vehicle for the continuous progress of time. The following is an excerpt from the poem:


title: Solar deity

text: The Sun was also compared to a wheel, for example, in Greek ', Sanskrit ', and Anglo-Saxon "", all theorized to be reflexes of PIE . Scholarship also points to a possible reflex in poetic expressions in Ukrainian folk songs.


title: Solar deity

text: Solar deities are often thought of as male (and lunar deities as being female) but the opposite has often been the case. In Germanic mythology, the Sun is female, and the Moon is male. Other European cultures that have sun goddesses include the Lithuanians (Saulė) and Latvians (Saule), the Finns (Päivätär, Beiwe) and the related Hungarians. Sun goddesses are found around the world in Australia (Bila, Wala); in Indian tribal religions (Bisal-Mariamma, Bomong, 'Ka Sgni) and Sri Lanka (Pattini); among the Hittites (Wurusemu), Egyptians (Hathor, Sekhmet), and Canaanites (Shapash); in the Canary Islands (Chaxiraxi, Magec); in Native America, among the Cherokee (Unelanuhi), Natchez (Oüa Chill/Uwahci∙ł), Inuit (Malina), and Miwok (He'-koo-lās); and in Asia among the Japanese (Amaterasu).


title: Solar deity

text: The cobra (of Pharaoh, son of Ra), the lioness (daughter of Ra), and the cow (daughter of Ra), are the dominant symbols of the most ancient Egyptian deities. They were female and carried their relationship to the sun atop their heads, and their cults remained active throughout the history of the culture. Later another sun god (Aten) was established in the eighteenth dynasty on top of the other solar deities, before the "aberration" was stamped out and the old pantheon re-established. When male deities became associated with the sun in that culture, they began as the offspring of a mother (except Ra, King of the Gods who gave birth to himself).


title: Solar deity

text: The comparison of Christ with the astronomical Sun is common in ancient Christian writings. By "the sun of righteousness" in Malachi 4 () "the fathers, from Justin downward, and nearly all the earlier commentators understand "Christ", who is supposed to be described as the rising sun". The New Testament itself contains a hymn fragment in Ephesians 5: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Clement of Alexandria wrote of "the Sun of the Resurrection, he who was born before the dawn, whose beams give light".


title: Solar deity

text: According to one hypothesis about Christmas, the date was set to 25 December because it was the date of the festival of Sol Invictus. The idea became popular especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.


title: Solar deity

text: The Philocalian calendar of AD 354 marks a festival of "Natalis Invicti" on 25 December. There is limited evidence that the festival was celebrated at around the time before the mid-4th century.


title: Solar deity

text: The earliest-known example of the idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December because it was the date of an already existing festival of the Sol Invictus was expressed in an annotation to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi. The scribe who added it wrote: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day."


title: Solar deity

text: In the judgment of the Church of England Liturgical Commission, this view has been seriously challenged by a view based on an old tradition, according to which the date of Christmas was fixed at nine months after 25 March, the date of the vernal equinox, on which the Annunciation was celebrated. The Jewish calendar date of 14 Nisan was believed to be that of creation, as well as of the Exodus and so of Passover, and Christians held that the new creation, both the death of Jesus and the beginning of his human life, occurred on the same date, which some put at 25 March in the Julian calendar.


title: Solar deity

text: It was a traditional Jewish belief that great men lived a whole number of years, without fractions, so that Jesus was considered to have been conceived on 25 March, as he died on 25 March, which was calculated to have coincided with 14 Nisan. Sextus Julius Africanus (c.160 – c.240) gave 25 March as the day of creation and of the conception of Jesus. The tractate "De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae" falsely attributed to John Chrysostom also argued that Jesus was conceived and crucified on the same day of the year and calculated this as 25 March. A passage of the "Commentary on the prophet Daniel" by Hippolytus of Rome, written in about 204, has also been appealed to.


title: Solar deity

text: Among those who have put forward this view are Louis Duchesne, Thomas J. Talley, David J. Rothenberg, J. Neil Alexander, and Hugh Wybrew.


title: Solar deity

text: The "Oxford Companion to Christian Thought" also remarks on the uncertainty about the order of precedence between the celebrations of the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun and the birthday of Jesus: "This 'calculations' hypothesis potentially establishes 25 December as a Christian festival before Aurelian's decree, which, when promulgated, might have provided for the Christian feast both opportunity and challenge." Susan K. Roll calls "most extreme" the unproven hypothesis that "would call Christmas point-blank a 'christianization' of Natalis Solis Invicti, a direct conscious appropriation of the pre-Christian feast, arbitrarily placed on the same calendar date, assimilating and adapting some of its cosmic symbolism and abruptly usurping any lingering habitual loyalty that newly-converted Christians might feel to the feasts of the state gods".


title: Solar deity

text: Among scholars who view the celebration of the birth of Jesus on 25 December as motivated by choice of the winter solstice, rather than that he was conceived and died on 25 March, some reject the idea that this choice constituted a deliberate Christianization of a festival of the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. For example, Michael Alan Anderson writes:


title: Solar deity

text: A study of Augustine of Hippo remarks that his exhortation in a Christmas sermon, "let us celebrate this day as a feast not for the sake of this sun, which is beheld by believers as much as by ourselves, but for the sake of him who created the sun", shows that he was aware of the coincidence of the celebration of Christmas and the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, although this pagan festival was celebrated at only a few places and was originally a peculiarity of the Roman city calendar. It adds: "He also believes, however, that there is a reliable tradition which gives 25 December as the actual date of the birth of our Lord."


title: Solar deity

text: In the 5th century, Pope Leo I (the Great) spoke in several sermons on the Feast of the Nativity of how the celebration of Christ's birth coincided with the increase of the Sun's position in the sky. An example is: "But this Nativity which is to be adored in heaven and on earth is suggested to us by no day more than this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature, there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery.


title: Solar deity

text: The charioteer in the mosaic of Mausoleum M has been interpreted by some as Christ by those who argue that Christians adopted the image of the Sun (Helios or Sol Invictus) to represent Christ. In this portrayal, he is a beardless figure with a flowing cloak in a chariot drawn by four white horses, as in the mosaic in Mausoleum M discovered under Saint Peter's Basilica and in an early-4th-century catacomb fresco. The nimbus of the figure under Saint Peter's Basilica is rayed, as in traditional pre-Christian representations. Clement of Alexandria had spoken of Christ driving his chariot across the sky. This interpretation is doubted by others: "Only the "cross-shaped" nimbus makes the Christian significance apparent". and the figure is seen by some simply as a representation of the sun with no explicit religious reference whatever, pagan or Christian.


title: Solar deity

text: Another speculation connects the biblical elements of Christ's life to those of a sun god. The Christian gospels report that Jesus had 12 followers (Apostles), which are claimed to be akin to the twelve zodiac constellations. When the Sun was in the house of Scorpio, Judas plotted with the chief priests and elders to arrest Jesus by kissing him. As the Sun exited Libra, it entered into the waiting arms of Scorpio to be kissed by Scorpio's bite.


title: Solar deity

text: Many of the world's sacrificed godmen, such as Osiris and Mithra, have their traditional birthday on 25 December. During this time, people believed that the "sun god" had "died" for three days and was "born again" on 25 December. After 25 December, the Sun supposedly moves 1 degree north, foreshadowing longer days. The three days following 21 December remain the darkest days of the year where Jesus (the Sun) dies and remains unseen for three days.


title: Solar deity

text: At the beginning of the first century, the Sun on the vernal equinox passed from Aries to Pisces (1 A.D. to 2150 A.D). That harmonizes with the mentioned lamb and fish in the gospels. The man carrying a pitcher of water (Luke 22:10) is Aquarius, the water bearer, who is always seen as a man pouring out a pitcher of water. He represents the Age of Aquarius, the age after Pisces, and when the Sun leaves the Age of Pisces (Jesus), it will go into the House of Aquarius.


title: Solar deity

text: The ritual of "Surya Namaskār", performed by Hindus, is an elaborate set of hand gestures and body movements, designed to greet and revere the Sun.


title: Solar deity

text: In India, at Konark in the state of Odisha, a temple is dedicated to Surya. The Konark Sun Temple has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Surya is the most prominent of the "navagrahas," or the nine celestial objects of the Hindus. "Navagrahas" can be found in almost all Hindu temples. There are further temples dedicated to Surya–one in Arasavalli, Srikakulam District in Andhra Pradesh, one in Gujarat at Modhera, and another in Rajasthan. The temple at Arasavalli was constructed in such a way that on the day of Radhasaptami, the Sun's rays directly fall on the feet of the Sri Suryanarayana Swami, the deity at the temple.


title: Solar deity

text: Chhath (, also called "Dala Chhath") is an ancient Hindu festival dedicated to Surya, unique to Bihar, Jharkhand and the Terai. The major festival is also celebrated in the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Chhattisgarh. Hymns to the Sun can be found in the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism. Practiced in different parts of India, the worship of the Sun has been described in the Rigveda. In the state of Odisha, there is another festival called Samba Dashami which celebrates "Surya".


title: Solar deity

text: In Tamil Nadu, the Tamil people worship the sun god during the Tamil month of Thai, after a year of crop farming. The month is known as the harvesting month and people pay respects to the sun on the first day of the Thai month known as Thai pongal, or Pongal, which is a four-day celebration. It is one of the few indigenous worships by the Tamil people, irrespective of religion.


title: Solar deity

text: In other parts of India, the festival is celebrated as Makar Sankranti and is mostly worshiped by Hindu diaspora.


title: Solar deity

text: The Tiv people consider the Sun to be the son of the Moon Awondo's daughter and the supreme being Awondo. The Barotse tribe believes that the Sun is inhabited by the sky god Nyambi and that the Moon is his wife.


title: Solar deity

text: Even where the sun god is equated with the supreme being, in some African mythologies, they do not have any special functions or privileges as compared to other deities. The ancient Egyptian god of creation, Amun, is also believed to reside inside of the Sun. So is the Akan creator deity, Nyame, and the Dogon deity of creation, Nommo. Also in Egypt, there was a religion that worshiped the Sun directly, and was among the first monotheistic religions: Atenism.


title: Solar deity

text: Sun worship was prevalent in ancient Egyptian religion. The earliest deities associated with the Sun are all goddesses: Wadjet, Sekhmet, Hathor, Nut, Bast, Bat, and Menhit. First Hathor, and then Isis, give birth to and nurse Horus and Ra, respectively. Hathor the horned-cow is one of the 12 daughters of Ra, gifted with joy and is a wet-nurse to Horus.


title: Solar deity

text: From at least the 4th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, the Sun was worshiped as the deity Re (pronounced probably as Riya, meaning simply the sun), and portrayed as a falcon-headed god surmounted by the solar disk, and surrounded by a serpent. Re supposedly gave warmth to the living body, symbolized as an ankh: a "☥" shaped amulet with a looped upper half. The ankh, it was believed, was surrendered with death, but could be preserved in the corpse with appropriate mummification and funerary rites. The supremacy of Re in the Egyptian pantheon was at its highest with the 5th Dynasty, when open-air solar temples became common. In the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Ra lost some of his preeminence to Osiris, lord of the West, and judge of the dead. In the New Empire period, the Sun became identified with the dung beetle, whose spherical ball of dung was identified with the Sun. In the form of the sun disc Aten, the Sun had a brief resurgence during the Amarna Period when it again became the preeminent, if not only, divinity for the Pharaoh Akhenaton.


title: Solar deity

text: The Sun's movement across the sky represents a struggle between the Pharaoh's soul and an avatar of Osiris. Ra travels across the sky in his solar-boat; at dawn he drives away the demon king Apep. The "solarisation" of several local gods (Hnum-Re, Min-Re, Amon-Re) reaches its peak in the period of the fifth dynasty.


title: Solar deity

text: Rituals to the god Amun, who became identified with the sun god Ra, were often carried out on the top of temple pylons. A pylon mirrored the hieroglyph for 'horizon' or "akhet", which was a depiction of two hills "between which the sun rose and set," associated with recreation and rebirth. On the first pylon of the temple of Isis at Philae, the pharaoh is shown slaying his enemies in the presence of Isis, Horus, and Hathor.


title: Solar deity

text: In the eighteenth dynasty, the earliest-known monotheistic head of state, Akhenaten, changed the polytheistic religion of Egypt to a monotheistic one, Atenism. All other deities were replaced by the Aten, including Amun-Ra, the reigning sun god of Akhenaten's own region. Unlike other deities, Aten did not have multiple forms. His only image was a disk—a symbol of the Sun.


title: Solar deity

text: Soon after Akhenaten's death, worship of the traditional deities was reestablished by the religious leaders (Ay the High-Priest of Amen-Ra, mentor of Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen) who had adopted the Aten during the reign of Akhenaten.


title: Solar deity

text: In Yazidism, the angel Şêşims is venerated as the Xudan or Lord of sun and light. He is also linked with fire, which is his terrestrial counterpart, and oaths, which are sworn by the doorway of his shrine. Annually, during the Feast of the Assembly, a ceremonial bull sacrifice is performed in front of his shrine at Lalish. Yazidi religious texts refer to the light of the sun as a manifestation of God's light, therefore, Yazidis direct their faces in the sun's direction while praying. There are daily Yazidi prayers that are recited during the daytime, divided into three main phases of the day, the morning prayers include Dua Şifaqê (The Dawn prayer), Dua Sibê (The Morning prayer), Duaya Rojhelatî (The Sunrise prayer). For the noon there is Dua Nîvro (The Noon prayer) and at evening there is the Duaya Hêvarî (The Evening prayer).


title: Solar deity

text: In Armenian mythology and in the vicinity of Carahunge, the ancient site of interest in the field of archaeoastronomy, people worshiped a powerful deity or intelligence called Ara, embodied as the sun (Ar or Arev). The ancient Armenians called themselves "children of the sun". (Russian and Armenian archaeoastronomers have suggested that at Carahunge seventeen of the stones still standing were associated with observations of sunrise or sunset at the solstices and equinoxes.)


title: Solar deity

text: Those who practice Dievturība, beliefs of traditional Latvian culture, worship the Sun goddess Saule, known in traditional Lithuanian beliefs as Saulė. Saule is among the most important deities in Baltic mythology and traditions.


title: Solar deity

text: The sun in Insular Celtic culture is assumed to have been feminine, and several goddesses have been proposed as possibly solar in character. In Continental Celtic culture, the sun gods, like Belenos, Grannos, and Lug, were masculine.


title: Solar deity

text: In Irish, the name of the Sun, "Grian", is feminine. The figure known as Áine is generally assumed to have been either synonymous with her, or her sister, assuming the role of Summer Sun while Grian was the Winter Sun. Similarly, Étaín has at times been considered to be another theonym associated with the Sun; if this is the case, then the pan-Celtic Epona might also have been originally solar in nature, though Roman syncretism pushed her towards a lunar role.


title: Solar deity

text: The British Sulis has a name cognate with that of other Indo-European solar deities such as the Greek Helios and Indic Surya, and bears some solar traits like the association with the eye as well as epithets associated with light. The theonym Sulevia, which is more widespread and probably unrelated to Sulis, is sometimes taken to have suggested a pan-Celtic role as a solar goddess.


title: Solar deity

text: The Welsh Olwen has at times been considered a vestige of the local sun goddess, in part due to the possible etymological association with the wheel and the colors gold, white and red.


title: Solar deity

text: Brighid has at times been argued as having had a solar nature, fitting her role as a goddess of fire and light.


title: Solar deity

text: In Chinese mythology (cosmology), there were originally ten suns in the sky, who were all brothers. They were supposed to emerge one at a time as commanded by the Jade Emperor. They were all very young and loved to fool around. Once they decided to all go into the sky to play, all at once. This made the world too hot for anything to grow. A hero named Hou Yi, honored to this day, shot down nine of them with a bow and arrow to save the people of the Earth.


title: Solar deity

text: In another myth, a solar eclipse was said to be caused by a magical dog or dragon biting off a piece of the Sun. The referenced event is said to have occurred around 2136 BC; two royal astronomers, Ho and Hi, were executed for failing to predict the eclipse. There was a tradition in China to make lots of loud celebratory sounds during a solar eclipse to scare the sacred beast away.


title: Solar deity

text: The Deity of the Sun in Chinese mythology is Ri Gong Tai Yang Xing Jun (Tai Yang Gong/Grandfather Sun) or Star Lord of the Solar Palace, Lord of the Sun. In some mythologies, Tai Yang Xing Jun is believed to be Hou Yi.


title: Solar deity

text: Tai Yang Xing Jun is usually depicted with the Star Lord of the Lunar Palace, Lord of the Moon, Yue Gong Tai Yin Xing Jun (Tai Yin Niang Niang/Lady Tai Yin). Worship of the moon goddess Chang'e and her festivals are very popular among followers of Chinese folk religion and Taoism. The goddess and her holy days are ingrained in Chinese popular culture.


title: Solar deity

text: In Germanic mythology, the sun is personified by Sol. The corresponding Old English name is Siȝel , continuing Proto-Germanic *Sôwilô or *Saewelô. The Old High German Sun goddess is Sunna. In the Norse traditions, Sól rode through the sky on her chariot every day, pulled by two horses named Arvak and Alsvid. Sól also was called Sunna and Frau Sunne.


title: Solar deity

text: First century historian Tacitus, in his book "Germania", mentioned that "beyond the Suiones [tribe]" a sea was located where the sun maintained its brilliance from its rising to its sunset, and that "[the] popular belief" was that "the sound of its emergence was audible" and "the form of its horses visible".


title: Solar deity

text: In Greek mythology, Helios, a Titan, was the personification of the Sun; however, with the notable exception of the island of Rhodes and nearby parts of southwestern Anatolia, he was a relatively minor deity. The Ancient Greeks also associated the Sun with Apollo, the god of enlightenment. Apollo (along with Helios) was sometimes depicted as driving a fiery chariot.


title: Solar deity

text: The Greek astronomer Thales of Miletus described the scientific properties of the Sun and Moon, making their godship unnecessary. Anaxagoras was arrested in 434 BC and banished from Athens for denying the existence of a solar or lunar deity. The titular character of Sophocles' "Electra" refers to the Sun as "All-seeing". Hermetic author Hermes Trismegistus calls the Sun "God Visible".


title: Solar deity

text: The Minotaur has been interpreted as a solar deity (as Moloch or Chronos), including by Arthur Bernard Cook, who considers both Minos and Minotaur as aspects of the sun god of the Cretans, who depicted the sun as a bull.


title: Solar deity

text: During the Roman Empire, a festival of the birth of the "Unconquered Sun" (or "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti") was celebrated on the winter solstice—the "rebirth" of the Sun—which occurred on 25 December of the Julian calendar. In late antiquity, the theological centrality of the Sun in some Imperial religious systems suggest a form of a "solar monotheism". The religious commemorations on 25 December were replaced under Christian domination of the Empire with the birthday of Christ.


title: Solar deity

text: The concept of the sun in Pre-Islamic Arabia, was abolished only under Muhammad. The Arabian solar deity appears to have been a goddess, Shams/Shamsun, most likely related to the Canaanite Shapash and broader middle-eastern Shamash. She was the patron goddess of Himyar, and possibly exalted by the Sabaeans .


title: Solar deity

text: In Aztec mythology, "Tonatiuh" (, "Movement of the Sun") was the sun god. The Aztec people considered him the leader of "Tollan" (heaven). He was also known as the fifth sun, because the Aztecs believed that he was the sun that took over when the fourth sun was expelled from the sky. According to their cosmology, each sun was a god with its own cosmic era. According to the Aztecs, they were still in Tonatiuh's era. According to the Aztec creation myth, the god demanded human sacrifice as tribute and without it would refuse to move through the sky. The Aztecs were fascinated by the Sun and carefully observed it, and had a solar calendar similar to that of the Maya. Many of today's remaining Aztec monuments have structures aligned with the Sun.


title: Solar deity

text: In the Aztec calendar, Tonatiuh is the lord of the thirteen days from 1 Death to 13 Flint. The preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Chalchiuhtlicue, and the following thirteen by Tlaloc.


title: Solar deity

text: Inti is the ancient Incan sun god. He is revered as the national patron of the Inca state. Although most consider Inti the sun god, he is more appropriately viewed as a cluster of solar aspects, since the Inca divided his identity according to the stages of the sun.


title: Solar deity

text: Thelema adapts its gods and goddesses from Ancient Egyptian religion, particularly those named in the Stele of Revealing, among whom is the Sun god Ra-Hoor-Khuit, a form of Horus. Ra-Hoor-Khuit is one of the principal deities described in Aleister Crowley's "Liber AL vel Legis".


title: Solar deity

text: In Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, folklorist Charles Leland alleges that a pagan group of witches in Tuscany, Italy viewed Lucifer as the god of the Sun and consort of the goddess Diana, whose daughter is the messiah Aradia.


title: Brute-force attack

text: In cryptography, a brute-force attack consists of an attacker submitting many passwords or passphrases with the hope of eventually guessing correctly. The attacker systematically checks all possible passwords and passphrases until the correct one is found. Alternatively, the attacker can attempt to guess the key which is typically created from the password using a key derivation function. This is known as an exhaustive key search.


title: Brute-force attack

text: A brute-force attack is a cryptanalytic attack that can, in theory, be used to attempt to decrypt any encrypted data (except for data encrypted in an information-theoretically secure manner). Such an attack might be used when it is not possible to take advantage of other weaknesses in an encryption system (if any exist) that would make the task easier.


title: Brute-force attack

text: When password-guessing, this method is very fast when used to check all short passwords, but for longer passwords other methods such as the dictionary attack are used because a brute-force search takes too long. Longer passwords, passphrases and keys have more possible values, making them exponentially more difficult to crack than shorter ones.


title: Brute-force attack

text: Brute-force attacks can be made less effective by obfuscating the data to be encoded making it more difficult for an attacker to recognize when the code has been cracked or by making the attacker do more work to test each guess. One of the measures of the strength of an encryption system is how long it would theoretically take an attacker to mount a successful brute-force attack against it.


title: Brute-force attack

text: Brute-force attacks are an application of brute-force search, the general problem-solving technique of enumerating all candidates and checking each one. The word 'hammering' is sometimes used to describe a brute-force attack, with 'anti-hammering' for countermeasures.


title: Brute-force attack

text: Brute-force attacks work by calculating every possible combination that could make up a password and testing it to see if it is the correct password. As the password's length increases, the amount of time, on average, to find the correct password increases exponentially.


title: Brute-force attack

text: The resources required for a brute-force attack grow exponentially with increasing key size, not linearly. Although U.S. export regulations historically restricted key lengths to 56-bit symmetric keys (e.g. Data Encryption Standard), these restrictions are no longer in place, so modern symmetric algorithms typically use computationally stronger 128- to 256-bit keys.


title: Brute-force attack

text: There is a physical argument that a 128-bit symmetric key is computationally secure against brute-force attack. The Landauer limit implied by the laws of physics sets a lower limit on the energy required to perform a computation of per bit erased in a computation, where "T" is the temperature of the computing device in kelvins, "k" is the Boltzmann constant, and the natural logarithm of 2 is about 0.693 (0.6931471805599453). No irreversible computing device can use less energy than this, even in principle. Thus, in order to simply flip through the possible values for a 128-bit symmetric key (ignoring doing the actual computing to check it) would, theoretically, require "2 − 1" bit flips on a conventional processor. If it is assumed that the calculation occurs near room temperature (≈300 K), the Von Neumann-Landauer Limit can be applied to estimate the energy required as ≈10 joules, which is equivalent to consuming 30 gigawatts of power for one year. This is equal to 30×10 W×365×24×3600 s = 9.46×10 J or 262.7 TWh (about 0.1% of the yearly world energy production). The full actual computation – checking each key to see if a solution has been found – would consume many times this amount. Furthermore, this is simply the energy requirement for cycling through the key space; the actual time it takes to flip each bit is not considered, which is certainly greater than 0 (see Bremermann's limit).


title: Brute-force attack

text: However, this argument assumes that the register values are changed using conventional set and clear operations which inevitably generate entropy. It has been shown that computational hardware can be designed not to encounter this theoretical obstruction (see reversible computing), though no such computers are known to have been constructed.


title: Brute-force attack

text: As commercial successors of governmental ASIC solutions have become available, also known as custom hardware attacks, two emerging technologies have proven their capability in the brute-force attack of certain ciphers. One is modern graphics processing unit (GPU) technology, the other is the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. GPUs benefit from their wide availability and price-performance benefit, FPGAs from their energy efficiency per cryptographic operation. Both technologies try to transport the benefits of parallel processing to brute-force attacks. In case of GPUs some hundreds, in the case of FPGA some thousand processing units making them much better suited to cracking passwords than conventional processors.


title: Brute-force attack

text: Various publications in the fields of cryptographic analysis have proved the energy efficiency of today's FPGA technology, for example, the COPACOBANA FPGA Cluster computer consumes the same energy as a single PC (600 W), but performs like 2,500 PCs for certain algorithms. A number of firms provide hardware-based FPGA cryptographic analysis solutions from a single FPGA PCI Express card up to dedicated FPGA computers. WPA and WPA2 encryption have successfully been brute-force attacked by reducing the workload by a factor of 50 in comparison to conventional CPUs and some hundred in case of FPGAs.


title: Brute-force attack

text: Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) permits the use of 256-bit keys. Breaking a symmetric 256-bit key by brute force requires 2 times more computational power than a 128-bit key. One of the fastest supercomputers in 2019 has a speed of 100 petaFLOPS which could theoretically check 100 million million (10) AES keys per second (assuming 1000 operations per check), but would still require 3.67×10 years to exhaust the 256-bit key space.


title: Brute-force attack

text: An underlying assumption of a brute-force attack is that the complete key space was used to generate keys, something that relies on an effective random number generator, and that there are no defects in the algorithm or its implementation. For example, a number of systems that were originally thought to be impossible to crack by brute force have nevertheless been cracked because the key space to search through was found to be much smaller than originally thought, because of a lack of entropy in their pseudorandom number generators. These include Netscape's implementation of SSL (famously cracked by Ian Goldberg and David Wagner in 1995) and a Debian/Ubuntu edition of OpenSSL discovered in 2008 to be flawed. A similar lack of implemented entropy led to the breaking of Enigma's code.


title: Brute-force attack

text: Credential recycling refers to the hacking practice of re-using username and password combinations gathered in previous brute-force attacks. A special form of credential recycling is pass the hash, where unsalted hashed credentials are stolen and re-used without first being brute forced.


title: Brute-force attack

text: Certain types of encryption, by their mathematical properties, cannot be defeated by brute force. An example of this is one-time pad cryptography, where every cleartext bit has a corresponding key from a truly random sequence of key bits. A 140 character one-time-pad-encoded string subjected to a brute-force attack would eventually reveal every 140 character string possible, including the correct answer – but of all the answers given, there would be no way of knowing which was the correct one. Defeating such a system, as was done by the Venona project, generally relies not on pure cryptography, but upon mistakes in its implementation: the key pads not being truly random, intercepted keypads, operators making mistakes – or other errors.


title: Brute-force attack

text: In case of an "offline" attack where the attacker has gained access to the encrypted material, one can try key combinations without the risk of discovery or interference. In case of "online" attacks, database and directory administrators can deploy countermeasures such as limiting the number of attempts that a password can be tried, introducing time delays between successive attempts, increasing the answer's complexity (e.g., requiring a CAPTCHA answer or employing multi-factor authentication), and/or locking accounts out after unsuccessful login attempts. Website administrators may prevent a particular IP address from trying more than a predetermined number of password attempts against any account on the site.


title: Brute-force attack

text: In a reverse brute-force attack, a single (usually common) password is tested against multiple usernames or encrypted files. The process may be repeated for a select few passwords. In such a strategy, the attacker is not targeting a specific user.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: The human sexual response cycle is a four-stage model of physiological responses to sexual stimulation, which, in order of their occurrence, are the excitement, plateau, orgasmic, and resolution phases. This physiological response model was first formulated by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, in their 1966 book "Human Sexual Response". Since that time, other models regarding human sexual response have been formulated by several scholars who have criticized certain inaccuracies in the human sexual response cycle model.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: The excitement phase (also known as the arousal phase or initial excitement phase) is the first stage of the human sexual response cycle, which occurs as a result of physical or mental erotic stimuli, such as kissing, making out, fantasizing or viewing erotic images, that leads to sexual arousal. During this stage, the body prepares for sexual intercourse, initially leading to the plateau phase. There is wide socio-cultural variation regarding preferences for the length of foreplay and the stimulation methods used. Physical and emotional interaction and stimulation of the erogenous zones during foreplay usually establishes at least some initial arousal.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Among both sexes, the excitement phase results in an increase in heart rate, breathing rate, and a rise in blood pressure. A survey in 2006 found that sexual arousal in about 82% of young females and 52% of young males arises or is enhanced by direct stimulation of nipples, with only 7–8% reporting that it decreased their arousal. Vasocongestion of the skin, commonly referred to as the sex flush, will occur in approximately 50-75% of females and 25% of males. The sex flush tends to occur more often under warmer conditions and may not appear at all under cooler temperatures.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: During the female sex flush, pinkish spots develop under the breasts, then spread to the breasts, torso, face, hands, soles of the feet, and possibly over the entire body. Vasocongestion is also responsible for the darkening of the clitoris and the walls of the vagina during sexual arousal. During the male sex flush, the coloration of the skin develops less consistently than in the female, but typically starts with the epigastrium (upper abdomen), spreads across the chest, then continues to the neck, face, forehead, back, and sometimes, shoulders and forearms. The sex flush typically disappears soon after orgasm occurs, but this may take up to two hours or so and, sometimes, intense sweating will occur simultaneously. The flush usually diminishes in reverse of the order in which it appeared.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: An increase in muscle tone (myotonia) of certain muscle groups, occurring voluntarily and involuntarily, begins during this phase among both sexes. Also, the external anal sphincter may contract randomly upon contact (or later during orgasm without contact).


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: In males, the beginning of the excitement phase is observed when the penis becomes partially or fully erect, often after only a few seconds of erotic stimulation. The erection may be partially lost and regained repeatedly during an extended excitement phase. Both testicles become drawn upward toward the perineum, notably in circumcised males where less skin is available to accommodate the erection. Also, the scrotum can tense and thicken during the erection process.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: In females, the excitement phase can last from several minutes to several hours. The onset of vasocongestion results in swelling of the woman's clitoris, labia minora and vagina. The muscle that surrounds the vaginal opening grows tighter and the uterus elevates and grows in size. The vaginal walls begin to produce a lubricating organic liquid. Meanwhile, the breasts increase slightly in size and nipples become hardened and erect.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: The plateau phase is the period of sexual excitement prior to orgasm. The phase is characterised by an increased circulation and heart rate in both sexes, increased sexual pleasure with increased stimulation and further increased muscle tension. Also, respiration continues at an elevated level. Prolonged time in the plateau phase without progression to the orgasmic phase may result in sexual frustration.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: During this phase, the male urethral sphincter contracts (so as to prevent urine from mixing with semen, and to guard against retrograde ejaculation) and muscles at the base of the penis begin a steady rhythmic contraction. Males may start to secrete seminal fluid or pre-ejaculatory fluid and the testicles rise closer to the body.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: The plateau stage in females is basically a continuation of the same changes evident in the excitement stage. The clitoris becomes extremely sensitive and withdraws slightly, and the Bartholin glands produce further lubrication. The tissues of the outer third of the vagina swell, and the pubococcygeus muscle tightens, reducing the diameter of the opening of the vagina. Masters and Johnson refer to the changes that take place during the plateau stage as the orgasmic platform. For those who never achieve orgasm, this is the peak of sexual excitement.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Orgasm is experienced by both males and females, ending the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle. Orgasm is accompanied by quick cycles of muscle contraction in the lower pelvic muscles, which surround both the anus and the primary sexual organs. Orgasms are often associated with other "involuntary" actions, including vocalizations and muscular spasms in other areas of the body and a generally euphoric sensation. Heart rate is increased even further. Tantric sex practices may seek to diminish the goal of achieving orgasm, which is frequently a common goal of sexual intercourse.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: In males, orgasm is usually associated with ejaculation. Each ejection is accompanied with continuous pulses of sexual pleasure, especially in the penis and loins. Other sensations may be felt strongly among the lower spine or lower back. The first and second convulsions are usually the most intense in sensation and produce the greatest quantity of semen. Thereafter, each contraction is associated with a diminishing volume of semen and a milder sensation of pleasure.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Women also experience uterine and vaginal contractions. Orgasms in females can vary widely from individual to individual. They are commonly associated with an increase in vaginal lubrication, a tightening of the vaginal walls and overall pleasure. For some women, there is also a possibility of female ejaculation (also called "squirting").


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: The resolution phase occurs after orgasm and allows the muscles to relax, blood pressure to drop and the body to slow down from its excited state. The refractory period, which is part of the resolution phase, is the time frame in which usually a man is unable to orgasm again, though women can also experience a refractory period.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Masters and Johnson described the two-stage detumescence of the penis: In the first stage, the penis decreases from its erect state to about 50 percent larger than its flaccid state. This occurs during the refractory period. In the second stage (and after the refractory period is finished), the penis decreases in size and returns to being flaccid. It is generally impossible for men to achieve orgasm during the refractory period. Masters and Johnson argue that this period must end before men can become aroused again.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Although, due to the refractory period, it is rare for men to achieve "multiple orgasms", some men have reported having multiple, consecutive orgasms, particularly without ejaculation. Multiple orgasms are more commonly reported in very young men than in older men. In younger men, the refractory period may only last a few minutes, but last more than an hour in older men.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: According to Masters and Johnson, women have the ability to orgasm again very quickly, as long as they have effective stimulation. As a result, they are able to have "multiple orgasms" in a relatively short period of time. Though generally reported that women do not experience a refractory period and thus can experience an additional orgasm, or multiple orgasms, soon after the first, some sources state that men and women experience a refractory period because women may also experience a period after orgasm in which further sexual stimulation does not produce excitement. For some women, the clitoris is very sensitive after climax, making additional stimulation initially painful. After the initial orgasm, subsequent orgasms for women may also be stronger or more pleasurable as the stimulation accumulates.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Masters and Johnson argue that, despite some minor differences, sexual responses in both men and women are fundamentally similar. However, researchers have argued that there are many differences between men and women in terms of their response. First, Masters and Johnson put forth one model for men, but three different models for women. They stated that men's sexual response only differs in terms of duration; showing different models would, thus, be repetitive. Women, on the other hand, they state can have responses that differ in both intensity and duration. These variations can pose problems because psychologists have argued that not everyone fits this model; for example, most women do not orgasm during penetrative sexual intercourse. Masters and Johnson also equate a man's erection with a woman's vaginal lubrication during the excitement phase; Roy Levin states that this observation is false. A woman's clitoris is the anatomical parallel to a man's penis. As a result, clitoral swelling would be the equivalent of a man's erection.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Another aspect is the lack of concordance between subjective sexual arousal and genital arousal. Research by Meredith L. Chivers and J. Michael Bailey indicates that men tend to show category-specific arousal; that is, they are sexually aroused by their preferred gender. However, women show category non-specificity: Their genitals show arousal to both preferred and non-preferred genders. Even though women reported being subjectively aroused to, for example, a man and woman engaging in sexual activity, their genitals also show sexual arousal to two men engaging in sexual activity, two women doing so, and even non-human animals having sex.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Overall, Masters and Johnson's model appears to be a better example of men's sexual response than women's.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: There has been much research conducted based on Masters and Johnson's model. However, inaccuracies have been found in the descriptions of the stages of sexual response. For example, Roy Levin identified a few areas of the model that had not been touched upon. First, Masters and Johnson state that only the vagina is lubricated during the arousal stage; Levin argues that the labia produce their own lubricant. Levin also presents research which shows that the first signs of physiological arousal in women is increased blood flow to the vagina, not lubrication. He also dispels information about men and their sexual response; Masters and Johnson report that pleasure was positively associated with the volume of ejaculate released, but Rosenberg, Hazzard, Tallman and Ohl gave a group of men a questionnaire and found that significantly more men reported that physical pleasure was associated with the strength of the ejaculation compared to the volume. Moreover, some researchers have found that some men can have multiple orgasms, despite what Masters and Johnson had reported.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Some researchers have also criticized how Masters and Johnson define sexual response solely in terms of physiology; for example, Everaerd, and Laan have found that sexual arousal can be defined as an emotional state in both men and women. Other researchers have stated that there is a lack of concordance between women's subjective sexual arousal and their genital arousal. Rosemary Basson argues that this model poorly explains women's sexual response, especially for those who are in long-term relationships.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Shortly after Masters and Johnson published their book, several scholars criticized their model of the human sexual response cycle. For example, Helen Singer Kaplan argued that Masters and Johnson only evaluated sexual response from a physiological perspective, and that psychological, emotional, and cognitive factors need to be taken into consideration. As a result, she proposed her model of the sexual response cycle which includes three phases: desire, excitement, and orgasm. She argues that these three phases are interconnected, yet they have different neurophysiological mechanisms. Similarly, Paul Robinson argued that the excitement and plateau phases are the same; he criticizes Masters and Johnson's work for not clearly distinguishing when the excitement phase ends, and when the plateau phase begins.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Another model that has been put forth is the incentive-motivation model. The model explains that the desire for sex comes from an interaction between a sensitive sexual response system and stimuli that are present in the environment. Researchers argue that this model supports the idea that sexual desire is not spontaneous. Furthermore, this model implies that the case is not that one has sex because one feels sexual desire; rather, the case is that one feels sexual desire because one has sex.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Rosemary Basson proposed an alternative model of sexual response. She argues that the linear model is good at explaining men's sexual response but it poorly explains women's sexual responses; thus, she puts forth a "circular model". She states that closeness or attachment to a partner increases the effectiveness of sexual stimulation. This leads to enhanced sexual arousal, which may ultimately result in orgasm. Consequently, this positive sexual arousal continues the sexual desire that women feel, and this desire increases intimacy with the partner. Other researchers have attempted to evaluate women's sexual functioning in terms of this new model but have found contradictory results. In one study conducted by Giles and McCabe, they found that the linear model of sexual response was a good predictor of women's sexual functioning (and dysfunction), while the circular model was a poor predictor. Once they modified the pathways of the model, the circular model then became a good predictor of sexual functioning. In another study looking at Malaysian women, researchers found that the circular model was actually a good predictor of women's sexual desire and arousal. More research needs to be done in this area to show whether the circular model more accurately describes women's sexual response.


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: The human sexual response cycle set the foundation for studying and categorizing sexual dysfunctions in men and women. There are four main categories of sexual dysfunctions: desire disorders, arousal disorders, orgasm disorders, and sexual pain disorders. They are still categorized as such in the "DSM-IV-TR". Recent research, however, suggests that the current model of sexual response needs to be revised to better treat these dysfunctions. One reason is that there is considerable overlap between sexual dysfunctions in women. One study found that in patients with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), 41% of women had at least one other sexual dysfunction and 18% had diagnoses in all three categories (that is, in desire, arousal, and orgasm disorders).


title: Human sexual response cycle

text: Another issue is that, among women, there is a discrepancy between desire and arousal. After Cynthia Graham critically evaluated female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD), she found that women reported that, contrary to Masters and Johnson's model, sexual arousal sometimes preceded sexual desire; at other times, desire presented before arousal. Because of the high comorbidity rates between HSDD and FSAD, she would like to merge them to make the category "Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder." Hartmann and colleagues summarize their views of the current model of the sexual response cycle and conclude that "by simply expanding and continuing DSM-IV criteria and the traditional response cycle classification systems, it is impossible to come to diagnostic categories and subtypes that adequately reflect real-life female sexual problems".


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza (; ', ), also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of 590,481 (in 2017), making it the largest city in the State of Palestine. Inhabited since at least the 15th century BCE, Gaza has been dominated by several different peoples and empires throughout its history.


title: Gaza City

text: The Philistines made it a part of their pentapolis after the Ancient Egyptians had ruled it for nearly 350 years.


title: Gaza City

text: Under the Roman Empire Gaza experienced relative peace and its port flourished. In 635 CE, it became the first city in Palestine to be conquered by the Muslim Rashidun army and quickly developed into a center of Islamic law. However, by the time the Crusaders invaded the country starting in 1099, Gaza was in ruins. In later centuries, Gaza experienced several hardships—from Mongol raids to floods and locusts, reducing it to a village by the 16th century, when it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. During the first half of Ottoman rule, the Ridwan dynasty controlled Gaza and under them the city went through an age of great commerce and peace. The municipality of Gaza was established in 1893.


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza fell to British forces during World War I, becoming a part of Mandatory Palestine. As a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Egypt administered the newly formed Gaza Strip territory and several improvements were undertaken in the city. Gaza was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967, but in 1993, the city was transferred to the newly created Palestinian National Authority. In the months following the 2006 election, an armed conflict broke out between the Palestinian political factions of Fatah and Hamas, resulting in the latter taking power in Gaza. Egypt and Israel consequently imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip. Israel eased the blockade allowing consumer goods in June 2010, and Egypt reopened the Rafah Border Crossing in 2011 to pedestrians.<ref name="IBRAHIM BARZAK 07/ 5/11 08:34 AM ET">Gaza Benefiting From Israel Easing Economic Blockade</ref><ref name="IBRAHIM BARZAK 06/21/11 08:13 AM ET">Gaza Border Opening Brings Little Relief</ref>


title: Gaza City

text: The primary economic activities of Gaza are small-scale industries and agriculture. However, the blockade and recurring conflicts have put the economy under severe pressure. The majority of Gaza's inhabitants are Muslim, although there is also a tiny Christian minority. Gaza has a very young population, with roughly 75% under the age of 25. The city is currently administered by a 14-member municipal council.


title: Gaza City

text: The name "Gaza" is first known from military records of Thutmose III of Egypt in the 15th century BCE.


title: Gaza City

text: In Semitic languages, the meaning of the city name is "fierce, strong". The Hebrew name of the city is "Azza" (עזה) – the ayin at the beginning of the word represented a voiced velar fricative in Biblical Hebrew, but in Modern Hebrew, it is silent. Although the "z" is double in Hebrew, it was transliterated into Greek as a single zeta, and the voiced velar or uvular fricative at the beginning was transliterated with a gamma – thus rendering it "Gáza".


title: Gaza City

text: According to Shahin, the Ancient Egyptians called it "gḏt", "Ghazzat" ("prized city"), and the Muslims often referred to it as "Ghazzat Hashem", in honor of Hashim, the great-grandfather of Muhammad who, according to Islamic tradition, is buried in the city.


title: Gaza City

text: Other proper Arabic transliterations for the Arabic name are "" or "Ġazzah" (DIN 31635). Accordingly, "Gaza" might be spelled "Gazza" in English.


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza's history of habitation dates back 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest cities in the world. Located on the Mediterranean coastal route between North Africa and the Levant, for most of its history it served as a key entrepôt of southern Palestine and an important stopover on the spice trade route traversing the Red Sea.


title: Gaza City

text: Settlement in the region of Gaza dates back to the ancient Egyptian fortress built in Canaanite territory at Tell es-Sakan, to the south of present-day Gaza. The site went into decline throughout the Early Bronze Age II as its trade with Egypt sharply decreased. Another urban center known as Tell el-Ajjul began to grow along the Wadi Ghazza riverbed. During the Middle Bronze Age, a revived Tell es-Sakan became the southernmost locality in Palestine, serving as a fort. In 1650 BCE, when the Canaanite Hyksos occupied Egypt, a second city developed on the ruins of the first Tell as-Sakan. However, it was abandoned by the 14th century BCE, at the end of the Bronze Age.


title: Gaza City

text: During the reign of Tuthmosis III (r. 1479–1425 BCE), the city became a stop on the Syrian-Egyptian caravan route and was mentioned in the 14th-century Amarna letters as "Azzati". Gaza later served as Egypt's administrative capital in Canaan. Gaza remained under Egyptian control for 350 years until it was conquered by the Philistines in the 12th century BCE.


title: Gaza City

text: According to the Hebrew Bible's Book of Judges, Gaza was the place where Samson was imprisoned by the Philistines and met his death ().


title: Gaza City

text: After being ruled by the Israelites, Assyrians, and then the Egyptians, Gaza achieved relative independence and prosperity under the Persian Empire.


title: Gaza City

text: Alexander the Great besieged Gaza, the last city to resist his conquest on his path to Egypt, for five months before finally capturing it 332 BCE; the inhabitants were either killed or taken captive. Alexander brought in local Bedouins to populate Gaza and organized the city into a "polis" (or "city-state").


title: Gaza City

text: In Seleucid times, Seleucus I Nicator, or one of his successors renamed Gaza into Seleucia to control the surrounding area against the Ptolemies. Greek culture consequently took root and Gaza earned a reputation as a flourishing center of Hellenistic learning and philosophy. During the Third War of the Diadochi, Ptolemy I Soter defeated Demetrius I of Macedon in a battle near Gaza in 312 BCE. In 277 BCE, following Ptolemy II's successful campaign against the Nabataeans the Ptolemaic fortress of Gaza took control of the spice trade with Gerrha and Southern Arabia.


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza experienced another siege in 96 BCE by the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus who "utterly overthrew" the city, killing 500 senators who had fled into the temple of Apollo for safety.


title: Gaza City

text: Josephus notes that Gaza was resettled under the rule of Antipater, who cultivated friendly relations with Gazans, Ascalonites and neighboring cities after being appointed governor of Idumea by Jannaeus.


title: Gaza City

text: Rebuilt after it was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 63 BCE under the command of Pompey Magnus, Gaza then became a part of the Roman province of Judaea. It was targeted by Jewish forces during their rebellion against Roman rule in 66 and was partially destroyed. It nevertheless remained an important city, even more so after the destruction of Jerusalem.


title: Gaza City

text: Throughout the Roman period, Gaza was a prosperous city and received grants and attention from several emperors. A 500-member senate governed Gaza, and a diverse variety of Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, and Bedouin populated the city. Gaza's mint issued coins adorned with the busts of gods and emperors. During his visit in 130 CE, Emperor Hadrian personally inaugurated wrestling, boxing, and oratorical competitions in Gaza's new stadium, which became known from Alexandria to Damascus. The city was adorned with many pagan temples; the main cult being that of Marnas. Other temples were dedicated to Zeus, Helios, Aphrodite, Apollo, Athena and the local Tyche. Christianity began to spread throughout Gaza in 250 CE, including in the port of Maiuma.


title: Gaza City

text: Following the division of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century CE, Gaza remained under control of the Eastern Roman Empire that in turn became the Byzantine Empire. The city prospered and was an important center for the southern Palestine. A Christian bishopric was established at Gaza. Conversion to Christianity in Gaza was accelerated under Saint Porphyrius between 396 and 420. In 402, Theodosius II ordered all eight of the city's pagan temples destroyed, and four years later Empress Aelia Eudocia commissioned the construction of a church atop the ruins of the Temple of Marnas. It was during this era that the Christian philosopher Aeneas of Gaza called Gaza, his hometown, "the Athens of Asia." A large synagogue existed in Gaza in the 6th century, according to excavations.


title: Gaza City

text: In 634 CE Gaza was besieged by the Muslim Rashidun army under general 'Amr ibn al-'As, following the Battle of Ajnadayn between the Byzantine Empire and the Rashidun Caliphate in central Palestine. It was captured by Amr's forces about three years later. Believed to be the site where Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim ibn Abd Manaf was buried, Gaza was not destroyed and its inhabitants were not attacked by 'Amr's army despite the city's stiff and lengthy resistance, although its Byzantine garrison was massacred.


title: Gaza City

text: The arrival of the Muslim Arabs brought significant changes to Gaza; at first some of its churches were transformed into mosques, including the present Great Mosque of Gaza (the oldest in the city), which was later rebuilt by Sultan Baibars, who endowed it with a huge manuscript library containing over 20,000 manuscripts in the 13th century. A large segment of the population swiftly adopted Islam, and Arabic became the official language. In 767 Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i was born in Gaza and lived his early childhood there; he founded the Shafi'i religious code, one of the four major Sunni Muslim schools of law ("fiqh"). Security, which was well-maintained during early Muslim rule, was the key to Gaza's prosperity. Although alcohol was banned in Islam, the Jewish and Christian communities were allowed to maintain wine production, and grapes, a major cash crop of the city, were exported mainly to Egypt.


title: Gaza City

text: Because it bordered the desert, Gaza was vulnerable to warring nomadic groups. In 796 it was destroyed during a civil war between the Arab tribes of the area. However, by the 10th century, the city had been rebuilt by the Abbasids; during Abbasid rule, the Jerusalemite geographer al-Muqaddasi described Gaza as "a large town lying on the highroad to Egypt on the border of the desert." In 978, the Fatimids established an agreement with Alptakin, the Turk ruler of Damascus, whereby the Fatimids would control Gaza and the land south of it, including Egypt, while Alptakin controlled the region north of the city.


title: Gaza City

text: The Crusaders conquered Gaza in 1100 and King Baldwin III built a castle in the city for the Knights Templar in 1149. He also had the Great Mosque converted back into a church, the Cathedral of Saint John. In 1154, Arab traveller al-Idrisi wrote that Gaza "is today very populous and in the hands of the Crusaders." In 1187 the Ayyubids, led by Sultan Saladin, captured Gaza and in 1191 destroyed the city's fortifications. Richard the Lionheart apparently refortified the city in 1192, but the walls were dismantled again as a result of the Treaty of Ramla agreed upon months later in 1193. Ayyubid rule ended in 1260, after the Mongols under Hulagu Khan completely destroyed Gaza, which became his southernmost conquest.


title: Gaza City

text: Following Gaza's destruction by the Mongols, Muslim slave-soldiers based in Egypt known as the Mamluks began to administer the area. In 1277, the Mamluks made Gaza the capital of a province that bore its name, "Mamlakat Ghazzah" (Governorship of Gaza). This district extended along the coastal plain of Palestine from Rafah in the south to just north of Caesarea, and to the east as far as the Samarian highlands and the Hebron Hills. Other major towns in the province included Qaqun, Ludd, and Ramla. Gaza, which entered a period of tranquility under the Mamluks, was used by them as an outpost in their offensives against the Crusaders which ended in 1290. In 1294 an earthquake devastated Gaza, and five years later the Mongols again destroyed all that had been restored by the Mamluks. Syrian geographer al-Dimashqi described Gaza in 1300 as a "city so rich in trees it looks like a cloth of brocade spread out upon the land." Under the governorship of Emir Sanjar al-Jawli, Gaza was transformed into a flourishing city and much of the Mamluk-era architecture dates back to his reign between 1311–1320 and again in 1342. In 1348 the bubonic plague spread to the city, killing the majority of its inhabitants and in 1352, Gaza suffered from a destructive flood, which was rare in that arid part of Palestine. However, when Arab traveller and writer Ibn Battuta visited the city in 1355, he noted that it was "large and populous, and has many mosques." The Mamluks contributed to Gazan architecture by building mosques, Islamic colleges, hospitals, caravansaries, and public baths.


title: Gaza City

text: The Mamluks allowed Jews to return to the city, after being expelled by the Crusaders, and the Jewish community prospered during Mamluk rule. Towards the end of the Mamluk period, the Jewish community in Gaza was the third largest in Palestine, after the communities in Safad and Jerusalem. In 1481, an Italian Jewish traveller, Meshulam of Volterra, wrote:Gazza is called by the Moslems Gaza. It is a fine and renowned place, and its fruits are very renowned and good. Bread and good wine is to be found there, but only Jews make wine. Gaza has a circumference of four miles and no walls. It is about six miles from the sea and situated in a valley and on a hill. It has a population as numerous as the sands of the sea, and there are about fifty (sixty) Jewish householders, artisans. They have a small but pretty Synagogue, and vineyards and fields and houses. They had already begun to make the new wine. ... The Jews live at the top of the hill. May God exalt them. There are also four Samaritan householders who live on the hillside.


title: Gaza City

text: In 1516 Gaza—at the time, a small town with an inactive port, ruined buildings and reduced trade—was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman army quickly and efficiently crushed a small-scale uprising, and the local population generally welcomed them as fellow Sunni Muslims. The city was then made the capital of the Gaza Sanjak, part of the larger Province of Damascus. The Ridwan family, named after governor Ridwan Pasha, was the first dynasty to govern Gaza and would continue to rule the city for over a century. Under Ahmad ibn Ridwan, the city became a cultural and religious center as a result of the partnership between the governor and prominent Islamic jurist Khayr al-Din al-Ramli, who was based in the nearby town of al-Ramla.


title: Gaza City

text: During the rule of Husayn Pasha, strife between the settled population and the nearby Bedouin tribes was dramatically reduced, allowing Gaza to peacefully prosper. The Ridwan period is described as a golden age for Gaza, a time when it served as the virtual "capital of Palestine." The Great Mosque was restored, and six other mosques constructed, while Turkish baths and market stalls proliferated. After the death of Musa Pasha, Husayn's successor, Ottoman officials were appointed to govern in place of the Ridwans. The Ridwan period was Gaza's last golden age during Ottoman rule. After the family was removed from office, the city gradually declined.


title: Gaza City

text: Starting in the early 19th century, Gaza was culturally dominated by neighboring Egypt; Muhammad Ali of Egypt conquered Gaza in 1832. American scholar Edward Robinson visited the city in 1838, describing it as a "thickly populated" town larger than Jerusalem, with its Old City lying upon a hilltop, while its suburbs laid on the nearby plain. The city benefited from trade and commerce because of its strategic position on the caravan route between Egypt and northern Syria as well as from producing soap and cotton for trade with the government, local Arab tribes, and the Bedouin of Wadi Arabah and Ma'an. The bazaars of Gaza were well-supplied and were noted by Robinson as "far better" than those of Jerusalem. Robinson noted that virtually all of Gaza's vestiges of ancient history and antiquity had disappeared due to constant conflict and occupation. By the mid-19th century, Gaza's port was eclipsed by the ports of Jaffa and Haifa, but it retained its fishing fleet.


title: Gaza City

text: The bubonic plague struck Gaza again in 1839 and the city, lacking political and economic stability, went into a state of stagnation. In 1840 Egyptian and Ottoman troops battled outside of Gaza. The Ottomans won control of the territory, effectively ending Egyptian rule over Palestine. However, the battles brought about more death and destruction in Gaza whilst the city was still recovering from the effects of the plague.


title: Gaza City

text: While leading the Allied Forces during World War I, the British won control of the city during the Third Battle of Gaza in 1917. After the war, Gaza was included in Mandatory Palestine. In the 1930s and 1940s, Gaza underwent major expansion. New neighborhoods were built along the coast and the southern and eastern plains. International organizations and missionary groups funded most of this construction.


title: Gaza City

text: In the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan, Gaza was assigned to be part of an Arab state in Palestine but was occupied by Egypt following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Gaza's growing population was augmented by an influx of refugees fleeing or expelled from nearby cities, towns and villages that were captured by Israel. In 1957, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser made a number of reforms in Gaza, which included expanding educational opportunities and the civil services, providing housing, and establishing local security forces.


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War following the defeat of the Egyptian Army. Frequent conflicts have erupted between Palestinians and the Israeli authorities in the city since the 1970s. The tensions led to the First Intifada in 1987. Gaza was a center of confrontation during this uprising, and economic conditions in the city worsened.


title: Gaza City

text: In September 1993, the leaders of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo Accords. The agreement called for Palestinian administration of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, which was implemented in May 1994. Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza, leaving a new Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to administer and police the city. The PNA, led by Yasser Arafat, chose Gaza as its first provincial headquarters. The newly established Palestinian National Council held its inaugural session in Gaza in March 1996.


title: Gaza City

text: In 2005, Israel withdrew its troops from the Gaza Strip and removed the thousands of Israelis who had settled in the territory. ("See" Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004.) Since the Israeli withdrawal, Hamas has been engaged in a sometimes violent power struggle with its rival Palestinian organisation Fatah. On January 25, 2006, Hamas won a surprise victory in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority. In 2007, Hamas overthrew Fatah forces in the Gaza Strip and Hamas members were dismissed from the PNA government in the West Bank in response. Currently, Hamas, recognized as a terror organization by most western countries, has "de facto" control of the city and Strip.


title: Gaza City

text: In March 2008, a coalition of human rights groups charged that the Israeli blockade of the city had caused the humanitarian situation in Gaza to have reached its worst point since Israel occupied the territory in the 1967 Six-Day War, and that Israeli air strikes targeting militants in the densely populated areas have often killed bystanders as well. In 2008, Israel commenced an assault against Gaza. Israel stated the strikes were in response to repetitive rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel since 2005, while the Palestinians stated that they were responding to Israel's military incursions and blockade of the Gaza Strip. In January 2009, at least 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the conflict.


title: Gaza City

text: In November 2012, after a week of conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, a ceasefire brokered by Egypt was announced on November 21. In the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, 2,205 Palestinians (including at least 1,483 civilians) and 71 Israelis (including 66 soldiers) and one foreign national in Israel were killed, according to UN OCHA. According to an analysis by the "New York Times", men ages 20–29, who are most likely to be militants, are most overrepresented in the death toll.


title: Gaza City

text: Central Gaza is situated on a low-lying and round hill with an elevation of above sea level. Much of the modern city is built along the plain below the hill, especially to the north and east, forming Gaza's suburbs. The beach and the port of Gaza are located west of the city's nucleus and the space in between is entirely built up on low-lying hills.


title: Gaza City

text: The municipal jurisdiction of the city today constitutes about . Gaza is southwest of Jerusalem, south of Tel Aviv, and north of Rafah. Surrounding localities include Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia to the north, and the village of Abu Middein, the refugee camp of Bureij, and the city of Deir al-Balah to the south.


title: Gaza City

text: The population of Gaza depends on groundwater as the only source for drinking, agricultural use, and domestic supply. The nearest stream is Wadi Ghazza to the south, sourced from Abu Middein along the coastline. It bears a small amount of water during the winter and virtually no water during the summer. Most of its water supply is diverted into Israel. The Gaza Aquifer along the coast is the main aquifer in the Gaza Strip and it consists mostly of Pleistocene sandstones. Like most of the Gaza Strip, Gaza is covered by quaternary soil; clay minerals in the soil absorb many organic and inorganic chemicals which has partially alleviated the extent of groundwater contamination.


title: Gaza City

text: A prominent hill southeast of Gaza, known as Tell al-Muntar, has an elevation of above sea level. For centuries it has been claimed as the place to which Samson brought the city gates of the Philistines. The hill is crowned by a Muslim shrine ("maqam") dedicated to Ali al-Muntar ("Ali of the Watchtower"). There are old Muslim graves around the surrounding trees, and the lintel of the doorway of the "maqam" has two medieval Arabic scriptures.


title: Gaza City

text: The Old City forms the main part of Gaza's nucleus. It is roughly divided into two quarters; the northern Daraj Quarter (also known as the Muslim Quarter) and the southern Zaytun Quarter (which contained the Jewish and Christian quarters.) Most structures date from the Mamluk and Ottoman eras, and some were built on top of earlier structures. The ancient part of the Old City is about .


title: Gaza City

text: There were seven historic gates to the Old City: Bab Asqalan (Gate of Ashkelon), Bab al-Darum (Gate of Deir al-Balah), Bab al-Bahr (Gate of the Sea), Bab Marnas (Gate of Marnas), Bab al-Baladiyah (Gate of the Town), Bab al-Khalil (Gate of Hebron), and Bab al-Muntar (Gate of Tell al-Muntar).


title: Gaza City

text: Some of the older buildings in Gaza's Old City use the "ablaq" style of decoration which features alternating layers of red and white masonry, prevalent in the Mamluk era. Daraj contains the Gold (Qissariya) Market as well as the Great Mosque of Gaza (oldest mosque in Gaza) and the Sayed al-Hashim Mosque. In Zaytun lies the Saint Porphryrius Church, the Katib al-Wilaya Mosque, and Hamam as-Sammara ("the Samaritan's Bathhouse.")


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza is composed of thirteen districts ("hayy") outside of the Old City. The first extension of Gaza beyond its city center was the district of Shuja'iyya, built on a hill just east and southeast of the Old City during the Ayyubid period. In the northeast is the Mamluk-era district of Tuffah, which is roughly divided into eastern and western halves and was originally located within the Old City's walls.


title: Gaza City

text: During the 1930s and 1940s, a new residential district, Rimal (currently divided into the districts of Northern Rimal and Southern Rimal), was constructed on the sand dunes west of the city center, and the district of Zeitoun was built along Gaza's southern and southwestern borders, while the Judeide ("the New") and Turukman neighborhoods of Shuja'iyya expanded into separate districts in the northeast and southeast, respectively. Judeide (also known Shuja'iyyat al-Akrad) was named after the Kurdish military units who settled there during the Mamluk era, while Turukman was named after the Turkmen military units who settled there.


title: Gaza City

text: The areas between Rimal and the Old City became the districts of Sabra and Daraj. In the northwest is the district of Nasser, built in the early 1950s and named in honor of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. The district of Sheikh Radwan, developed in the 1970s, is to the north of the Old City and is named after Sheikh Radwan—the tomb of whom is located within the district. Gaza has absorbed the village of al-Qubbah near the border with Israel, as well as the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Shati along the coast, although the latter is not under the city's municipal jurisdiction. In the late 1990s, the PNA built the more affluent neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa along the southern edge of Rimal. Along the southern coast of the city is the neighborhood of Sheikh Ijlin.


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen: "BSh"), with Mediterranean characteristics, featuring mild rainy winters and dry hot summers. Spring arrives around March or April and the hottest month is August, with the average high being . The coolest month is January with temperatures usually peaking at . Rain is scarce and falls almost exclusively between November and March, with annual rainfall totalling approximately .


title: Gaza City

text: According to Ottoman tax records in 1557, Gaza had 2,477 male taxpayers. The statistics from 1596 show that Gaza's Muslim population consisted of 456 households, 115 bachelors, 59 religious persons, and 19 disabled persons. In addition to the Muslim figure, there were 141 "jundiyan" or "soldiers" in the Ottoman army. Of the Christians, there were 294 households and seven bachelors, while there were 73 Jewish households and eight Samaritan households. In total, an estimated 6,000 people lived in Gaza, making it the third largest city in Ottoman Palestine after Jerusalem and Safad.


title: Gaza City

text: In 1838, there were roughly 4,000 Muslim and 100 Christian tax payers, implying a population of about 15,000 or 16,000—making it larger than Jerusalem at the time. The total number of Christian families was 57. Before the outbreak of World War I, the population of Gaza had reached 42,000; however, the fierce battles between Allied Forces and the Ottomans and their German allies in 1917 in Gaza resulted in a massive population decrease. The following census, which was conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities shows a sharp decrease in population which stood at 17,480 residents, consisting of 16,722 Muslims, 54 Jews and 701 Christians.


title: Gaza City

text: According to a 1997 census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Gaza and the adjacent al-Shati camp had a population of 353,115, of which 50.9% were males and 49.1% females. Gaza had an overwhelmingly young population with more than half being between the ages of infancy to 19 (60.8%). About 28.8% were between the ages of 20 to 44, 7.7% between 45 and 64, and 3.9% were over the age of 64.


title: Gaza City

text: A massive influx of Palestinian refugees swelled Gaza's population after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. By 1967, the population had grown to about six times its 1948 size. In 1997, 51.8% of Gaza's inhabitants were refugees or their descendants. The city's population has continued to increase since that time to 590,481 in 2017, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories. Gaza City has one of the highest overall growth rates in the world. Its population density is 9,982.69/km (26,424.76/sq mi) comparable to New York City (10,725.4/km – 27,778.7/sq mi), half of Paris density (21,000/km – 55,000/sq mi). In 2007 poverty, unemployment and poor living conditions were widespread and many residents received United Nations food aid.


title: Gaza City

text: The population of Gaza is overwhelmingly composed of Muslims, who mostly follow Sunni Islam. During the Fatimid period, Shia Islam was dominant in Gaza, but after Saladin conquered the city in 1187, he promoted a strictly Sunni religious and educational policy, which at the time was instrumental in uniting his Arab and Turkish soldiers.


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza is home to a small Palestinian Christian minority of about 3,500 people. The majority live in the Zaytun Quarter of the Old City and belong to the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Baptist denominations. In 1906 there were about 750 Christians, of which 700 were Orthodox and 50 were Roman Catholic.


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza's Jewish community was roughly 3,000 years old, and in 1481 there were sixty Jewish households. Most of them fled from Gaza after the 1929 Palestine riots, when they consisted of fifty families. In Sami Hadawi's land and population survey, Gaza had a population of 34,250, including 80 Jews in 1945. Most of them left the city after the 1948 War, due to mutual distrust between them and the Arab majority. Today, there are no Jews living in Gaza.


title: Gaza City

text: The major agricultural products are strawberries, citrus, dates, olives, flowers, and various vegetables. Pollution and high demand for water have reduced the productive capacity of farms in the Gaza Strip. Small-scale industries include the production of plastics, construction materials, textiles, furniture, pottery, tiles, copperware, and carpets. Since the Oslo Accords, thousands of residents have been employed in government ministries and security services, UNRWA and international organizations. Minor industries include textiles and food processing. A variety of wares are sold in Gaza's street bazaars, including carpets, pottery, wicker furniture, and cotton clothing. The upscale Gaza Mall opened in July 2010.


title: Gaza City

text: Many Gazans worked in the Israeli service industry when the border was open, but after Israel's 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip, this source of jobs disappeared.


title: Gaza City

text: A report by human rights and development groups published in 2008 stated that Gaza had suffered a long term pattern of economic stagnation and dire development indicators, the severity which was increased exponentially by the Israeli and Egyptian blockades. The report cited a number of economic indicators to illustrate the point: In 2008, 95% of Gaza's industrial operations were suspended due to lack of access inputs for production and export problems. In 2009, unemployment in Gaza was close to 40%. The private sector which generates 53% of all jobs in Gaza was devastated and businesses went bankrupt. In June 2005, 3,900 factories in Gaza employed 35,000 people, by December 2007, only 1,700 were still employed. The construction industry was paralyzed with tens of thousands of laborers out of work. The agriculture sector was hard hit, affecting nearly 40,000 workers dependent on cash crops.


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza's food prices rose during the blockade, with wheat flour going up 34%, rice up 21%, and baby powder up 30%. In 2007, households spent an average of 62% of their total income on food, compared to 37% in 2004. In less than a decade, the number of families depending on UNRWA food aid increased tenfold. In 2008, 80% of the population relied on humanitarian aid in 2008 compared to 63% in 2006. According to a report by OXFAM in 2009, Gaza suffered from a serious shortage of housing, educational facilities, health facilities and infrastructure, along with an inadequate sewage system that contributed to hygiene and public health problems.


title: Gaza City

text: Following a significant easing of the closure policy in 2010, the economy of Gaza began to see a substantial recovery from anemic levels during the height of the blockade. The economy of Gaza grew by 8% in the first 11 months of 2010. Economic activity is largely supported by foreign aid donations. There are a number of hotels in Gaza, including the Palestine, Grand Palace, Adam, al-Amal, al-Quds, Cliff, al-Deira and Marna House. All, except the Palestine Hotel, are located along in the coastal Rimal district. The United Nations (UN) has a beach club on the same street. Gaza is not a frequent destination for tourists, and most foreigners who stay in hotels are journalists, aid workers, UN and Red Cross personnel. Upmarket hotels include the al-Quds and the al-Deira Hotel.


title: Gaza City

text: In November 2012, a report by the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce called for the Gaza Strip to be recognized as an economic disaster area after it concluded that the Israeli Operation Pillar of Defense caused approximately $300 million in economic damage.


title: Gaza City

text: The Rashad Shawa Cultural Center, located in Rimal, was completed in 1988 and named after its founder, former mayor Rashad al-Shawa. A two-story building with a triangular plan, the cultural centers performs three main functions: a meeting place for large gatherings during annual festivals, a place to stage exhibitions, and a library. The French Cultural Center is a symbol of French partnership and cooperation in Gaza. It holds art exhibits, concerts, film screenings, and other activities. Whenever possible, French artists are invited to display their artwork, and more frequently, Palestinian artists from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are invited to participate in art competitions.


title: Gaza City

text: Established in 1998, the Arts and Crafts Village is a children's cultural center with the objectives of promoting comprehensive, regular and periodic documentation of creative art in all of its forms. It interacted on a large scale with a class of artists from different nationalities and organized around 100 exhibitions for creative art, ceramics, graphics, carvings and others. Nearly 10,000 children from throughout the Gaza Strip have benefited from the Arts and Crafts Village.


title: Gaza City

text: The Gaza Theater, financed by contributions from Norway, opened in 2004. The theater does not receive much funding from the PNA, depending mostly on donations from foreign aid agencies. The A. M. Qattan Foundation, a Palestinian arts charity, runs several workshops in Gaza to develop young artistic talent and impart drama skills to teachers. The Gaza Theater Festival was inaugurated in 2005.


title: Gaza City

text: The Gaza Museum of Archaeology, founded by Jawdat N. Khoudary, opened in the summer of 2008. The museum collection features thousands of items, including a statue of a full-breasted Aphrodite in a diaphanous gown, images of other ancient deities and oil lamps featuring menorahs.


title: Gaza City

text: Gaza's cuisine is characterized by its generous use of spices and chillies. Other major flavors and ingredients include dill, chard, garlic, cumin, lentils, chickpeas, pomegranates, sour plums and tamarind. Many of the traditional dishes rely on clay pot cooking, which preserves the flavor and texture of the vegetables and results in fork-tender meat. Traditionally, most Gazan dishes are seasonal and rely on ingredients indigenous to the area and its surrounding villages. Poverty has also played an important role in determining many of the city's simple meatless dishes and stews, such as "saliq wa adas" ("chard and lentils") and "bisara" (skinless fava beans mashed with dried mulukhiya leaves and chilies).


title: Gaza City

text: Seafood is a key aspect of Gaza life and a local staple, Some well-known seafood dishes include "zibdiyit gambari", literally, "shrimps in a clay pot", and "shatta" which are crabs stuffed with red hot chili pepper dip, then baked in the oven. Fish is either fried or grilled after being stuffed with cilantro, garlic, chillies and cumin, and marinated with various spices. It is also a key ingredient in "sayyadiya", rice cooked with caramelized onions, a generous amount of whole garlic cloves, large chunks of well-marinated fried fish, and spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, and cumin. Many of the 1948-era refugees were "fellahin" ("peasants") who ate seasonal foods. "Sumaghiyyeh", popular in Gaza not just on Ramadan but all year round, is a mixture of sumac, tahina and water combined with chard, chunks of beef and chickpeas. The dish is topped with crushed dill seeds, chillies and fried garlic and served in bowls. "Maftool" is a wheat-based dish flavored with dried sour plums that is served like couscous or shaped into little balls and steamed over stew or soup.


title: Gaza City

text: Most Gaza restaurants are located in the Rimal district. Al-Andalus, which specializes in fish and seafood, is popular with tourists, as are al-Sammak and the upscale Roots Club. Atfaluna is a stylish restaurant near Gaza port run and staffed by deaf people with the goal of building a society that is more accepting of people with disabilities.


title: Gaza City

text: Throughout the Old City there are street stalls that sell cooked beans, hummus, roasted sweet potatoes, falafel, and kebabs. Coffee houses ("qahwa") serve Arabic coffee and tea. Gaza's well-known sweet shops, Saqqala and Arafat, sell common Arab sweet products and are located off Wehda Street. Alcohol is a rarity, found only in the United Nations Beach Club.


title: Gaza City

text: Gauze is reputed to have originated in Gaza. Cloth for the Gaza "thob" was often woven at nearby Majdal (Ascalon). Black or blue cottons or striped pink and green fabric that had been made in Majdal continued to be woven throughout the Gaza Strip by refugees from the coastal plain villages until the 1960s. "Thobs" here had narrow, tight, straight sleeves. Embroidery was much less dense than that applied in Hebron. The most popular motifs included: scissors ("muqass"), combs ("mushut") and triangles ("hijab") often arranged in clusters of fives, sevens and threes, as the use of odd numbers is considered in Arab folklore to be effective against the evil eye.


title: Gaza City

text: Circa 1990, Hamas and other Islamic movements sought to increase the use of the "hijab" ("headscarf") among Gazan women, especially urban and educated women, and the "hijab" styles since introduced have varied according to class and group identity.