Lod

Lod lōd [key], city (1994 pop. 51,200), central Israel. It is also known as Lydda. Its manufactures include paper products, chemicals, oil products, electronic equipment, processed food, and cigarettes. Nearby is Ben-Gurion airport, the nation's chief international airport and the center of its large aircraft industry. The city is a railroad and road junction. Lod was probably of Hebrew foundation and is frequently mentioned in the Bible. It was destroyed (a.d. 66–70) by the Romans in the Jewish-Roman war and, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (a.d. 70), became the temporary seat of many famous Jewish teachers. Hadrian rebuilt the city and named it Diospolis. It is the traditional home and place of burial of St. George (4th cent.?), England's patron saint, and has a church in his honor. In the 5th cent. it was the seat of a bishop; a synod of bishops met there in 415. Lod was occupied by the Crusaders in 1099, destroyed by Saladin in 1191, and rebuilt by King Richard I (Richard Coeur de Lion) of England. After the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 most Arabs were expelled from the city, which was then settled by Jewish immigrants.

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