Haifa City Map Poster

About Haifa

The ultimate origin of the name Haifa remains unclear. Possible references to this name have been found in different forms across different languages: a Phoenician inscription from Byblos (dated to c. 1200 BCE) and two Egyptian temples, one dated to the 18th dynasty (c. 1350 BCE), and another temple built within a 19th-century CE mosque in Giza bearing an inscription by Pharaoh Seti I (c. 1290–1279 BCE). The earliest named settlement within the area of modern-day Haifa was a city known as Sycaminum, or Sichem, inhabited since at least 1500 BC; it is believed that it was situated where present-day downtown Haifa is now located.[9] In Hebrew, the word "šeqem" means 'shoulder'.