Lod
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Lod city center
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Coordinates: 31°57′7″N 34°53′17″E / 31.95194°N 34.88806°ECoordinates: 31°57′7″N 34°53′17″E / 31.95194°N 34.88806°E | ||
Country | Israel | |
District | Central | |
Government | ||
• Type | City | |
• Mayor | Yair Revivo | |
Area | ||
• Total | 12,226 dunams (12.226 km2 or 4.720 sq mi) | |
Population (2015) | ||
• Total | 72,819 |
Lod (Hebrew: לוֹד; Arabic: اللُّدّ al-Ludd; Greco-Latin: Lydda, Diospolis, Ancient Greek: Λύδδα / Διόσπολις - city of Zeus) is a mixed Jewish-Arab city 15 km (9.3 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv in the Central District of Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 72,819.
The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod, and it was a significant Judean town from the Maccabean Period to the early Christian period. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War most of the city's Arab inhabitants were expelled in the 1948 Palestinian exodus from Lydda and Ramle. The town was resettled by Jewish immigrants, most of them from Arab countries, alongside 1,056 Arabs who remained.
Israel's main international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport (previously known as Lydda Airport, RAF Lydda, and Lod Airport) is located on the outskirts of the city.
The Hebrew name Lod appears in the Bible as a town of Benjamin, founded by Shamed or Shamer (1 Chronicles 8:12; Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37; 11:35). In the New Testament, it appears as its Greek form, Lydda. The city also finds reference in an Islamic Hadith, as the location of the battlefield where the antichrist (Dajjal) will be slain before the Day of Judgment.