Rosh HaAin (Rosh Haayin) (Hebrew ראש העין‎) is a city in Israel, in the Central District, located near Petah Tikva.

City name
The name of the city Rosh HaAyin (Hebrew רֹאשׁ הָעַיִן‎) is translated from Hebrew as “the beginning of the spring”, since the city is located at the source of the Yarkon River, which flows further to Petah Tikva and Tel Aviv.

Geographic location
The city is located at the source of the Yarkon River, on the border between the Hasharon Valley and the mountainous area of ​​​​Hashfela (English) Russian, so part of the city (Old Rosh HaAyin) is located in the valley, and part (New Rosh HaAyin) is located on the slopes of the mountains.
Jerusalem – 55 km.
Tel Aviv – 15 km.
Petah Tikva – 3.5 km.

History
Alexander the Great, Simon Bar-Kokhba, Alexander Jannay fought in these places. There is a legend that this is where Rabbi Akiva is buried.
Fortress of Antipatris (Afek). To the east of the city, near the source of the Yarkon River, there is a large mound – Tel Afek, where traces of settlements of the Middle Bronze and Early Iron Ages, as well as the Hellenistic and Roman periods, were found. Obviously, we are talking about the ruins of the ancient Jewish city of Aphek (in Hebrew “source”), renamed by King Herod in honor of his father in Antipatris). At the top of the hill are the ruins of a fortified inn from the time of the Mamluks. The place has been an important point on the way from Egypt to Judea, Damascus, Lebanon and Mesopotamia since ancient times.

In the vicinity of Aphek, during the time of the Judges, there was a battle with the Philistines (1066 BC), described in the Bible: “… The Philistines settled down near Aphek …. And there was a battle, and the Israelites were slain by the Philistines, … and the Israelites fell thirty thousand on foot. And the Ark of God was taken…” (1 Sam. 4:1,2, 10,11). During the victorious conquests of Alexander the Great in Aphek, he met with Simon the Righteous (Shimon ha-Tzadik), the Jerusalem high priest.
In the Christian tradition, Aphek or Antipatris is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (23:12) in connection with the apostle Paul. It is mentioned that Antipatris was on the Jerusalem-Caesarea road.

The fortress of Migdal Tzedek, the “Tower of Justice”, is located on Highway 444 (Ben Shemen – Rosh HaAyin). In the 19th century, the Bedouin sheikh Ahmed Sedek (Tzedek) settled here, who traded in robbery, removing payment from passing caravans. Sedek was caught and sent to prison on Trebizond, and his name is preserved in the name of the fortress.
Rosh HaAyin was established in 1949 on the site of a former British military base as a maabara (temporary repatriation camp). The first settlers were repatriates from Yemen, taken out by Israel by air in 1949-1950. during Operation Eagle Wings.

Population
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the population for 2016 is 42,939.
The population density in the city of Rosh HaAyin was 7960 people per square kilometer.