Eilat Port (Eilat)

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The Port of Eilat is the only Israeli port on the Red Sea, located at the northen tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. It has significant economic and strategic importance. The Port of Eilat was opened in 1957 and is today mainly used for trading with Far East countries as it allows Israeli shipping to reach the Indian Ocean without having to sail through the Suez Canal. Egyptian naval blockades of the Straits of Tiran which control access to Eilat featured prominently in the events which led to two major Arab-Israeli Wars: The Sinai War and the Six-Day War. The ship traffic in the port is comparatively low and there are several reasons cited for this: one is due to Eilat being situated at a considerable distance from the centre of the country (where most of the population is located), another is the fact that the port is yet to be served by a railway line (the nearest railhead is hundreds of kilometres to the north). Also, coastal tourism uses compete with any prospects of expanding the port's facilities (unless the port were to be entirely relocated from its present location to an excavated area in the desert north of the city).