Article: Israel
Section: Geography and climate

Question: What nation is the leader in solar energy use per capita?

Israel is at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, bounded by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank to the east, and Egypt and the Gaza strip to the southwest.
It lies between latitudes 29° and 34° N, and longitudes 34° and 36° E. The sovereign territory of Israel, excluding all territories captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, is approximately in area, of which two percent is water.
However Israel is so narrow that the exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean is double the land area of the country.
The total area under Israeli law, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, is , and the total area under Israeli control, including the military-controlled and partially Palestinian-governed territory of the West Bank, is .
Despite its small size, Israel is home to a variety of geographic features, from the Negev desert in the south to the inland fertile Jezreel Valley, mountain ranges of the Galilee, Carmel and toward the Golan in the north.
The Israeli Coastal Plain on the shores of the Mediterranean is home to 57 percent of the nation's population.
East of the central highlands lies the Jordan Rift Valley, which forms a small part of the Great Rift Valley.
The Jordan River runs along the Jordan Rift Valley, from Mount Hermon through the Hulah Valley and the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the Earth.
Further south is the Arabah, ending with the Gulf of Eilat, part of the Red Sea.
Unique to Israel and the Sinai Peninsula are makhteshim, or erosion cirques.
The largest makhtesh in the world is Ramon Crater in the Negev, which measures .
A report on the environmental status of the Mediterranean basin states that Israel has the largest number of plant species per square meter of all the countries in the basin.
Temperatures in Israel vary widely, especially during the winter.
The more mountainous regions can be windy, cold, and sometimes snowy; Jerusalem usually receives at least one snowfall each year.
Meanwhile, coastal cities, such as Tel Aviv and Haifa, have a typical Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and long, hot summers.
The area of Beersheba and the Northern Negev has a semi-arid climate with hot summers, cool winters and fewer rainy days than the Mediterranean climate.
The Southern Negev and the Arava areas have desert climate with very hot and dry summers, and mild winters with few days of rain.
The highest temperature in the continent of Asia () was recorded in 1942 at Tirat Zvi kibbutz in the northern Jordan river valley.
From May to September, rain in Israel is rare.
With scarce water resources, Israel has developed various water-saving technologies, including drip irrigation.
Israelis also take advantage of the considerable sunlight available for solar energy, making Israel the leading nation in solar energy use per capita (practically every house uses solar panels for water heating).
Four different phytogeographic regions exist in Israel, due to the country's location between the temperate and the tropical zones, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the desert in the east.
For this reason the flora and fauna of Israel is extremely diverse.
There are 2,867 known species of plants found in Israel.
Of these, at least 253 species are introduced and non-native.
There are 380 Israeli nature reserves.