A garden city has blossomed in the Judean hills. Efrat was founded on March 15, 1983, in a magnificent mountainous location 8 miles south of Jerusalem, in the heart of the Etzion Bloc (Gush Etzion). It rises to a height of 960 meters above sea level and covers about 4,000 dunam. In designing the city, great care was taken to keep the residential neighborhoods separate from commercial and industrial zones. The industrial zone was originally planned to be a science park type of project, providing for 700 jobs.