Zev Vilnay was an Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i geographer

Geographer

A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...

, author and lecturer.

Biography

Zev Vilnay was born in Kishinev. He moved to Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 with his parents at the age of six and grew up in Haifa

Haifa

Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

. He served as a military topographer in the Haganah

Haganah

Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...

, and later in the Israel Defense Forces

Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...

. Vilnay and his wife Esther lived in Jerusalem. Their son, Matan Vilnai

Matan Vilnai

Matan Vilnai is an Israeli politician and a former Major General in the Israel Defense Forces . He is currently Minister for Home Front Defense and a member of the Knesset for Independence.-Biography:...

 is a member of the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

  and Israel's deputy minister of defense.

Land of Israel studies

He was a pioneer in the sphere of outdoor hiking and touring in Israel. Vilnay lectured widely on Israeli geography, ethnography, history and folklore. His Guide to Israel was published in 27 editions and translated into many languages.

In the 1974 edition of his guide, Vilnay describes how he helped bring back to Israel the boat of a British naval officer, Thomas Howard Molyneux, who sailed the Jordan River from Lake Kinneret to the Dead Sea

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...

 to map the region in the 19th century.

Awards

• In 1974, Vilnay received the Yakir Yerushalayim
  Yakir Yerushalayim
  Yakir Yerushalayim is an annual citizenship prize in Jerusalem, Israel, inaugurated in 1967.The prize is awarded annually by the municipality of the City of Jerusalem to one or more residents of the city who have contributed to the cultural and educational life of the city in some outstanding way....
  
   (Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) award.
• In 1981, he was the co-recipient (jointly with Avraham Even-Shoshan) of the Bialik Prize
  Bialik Prize
  The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate prizes, one specifically for "Literature", which is in the field of fiction,...
  
   for Jewish thought.
• In 1982, he was awarded the Israel Prize
  Israel Prize
  The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
  
  , for knowledge and love of the Land of Israel
  Land of Israel
  The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
  
  .

Published works in English

• Legends of Palestine (1932)
• The Guide to Israel (first published in 1955)
• The Holy Land in Old Prints and Maps (1965)
• The New Israel Atlas: Bible to Present Day (1968)
• The Changing Face of Acco
• Legends of Jerusalem (3 volumes)
• Legends of Judea and SamariaThe Vilnay Guide to Israel
• The Vilnay Guide to Israel: A new Millennium Edition (2 volumes) (1999)

Published works in Hebrew

• Entziklopediya Liyidiat Haaretz (3 volumes) (1956)
• Yerushalayim (2 volumes) (1960-62, 1970)
• Eretz Yisrael Betmunot Atikot (1961)
• Matzevot Kodesh Be'eretz Yisrael (1963)
• Tel Aviv-Jaffa (1965)
• Yehudah Veshomron (1968)
• Sinai, Avar Vehoveh (1969)
• Golan Vehermon (1970)
• Ariel – Entziklopediya Lidiyat HaAretz (10 volumes) (1976–82)

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients
• List of Bialik Prize recipients
  Bialik Prize
  The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate prizes, one specifically for "Literature", which is in the field of fiction,...