Jaffa, a favourite tourist district in the southern part of Tel Aviv, was once an independent city - one of the oldest in the world.
The place is very old indeed: in the 15th century BC, Pharaoh Thutmose III, who captured it, considered the event worthy of written glorification. Three centuries before the siege of Troy, the Egyptians were helped by the same military stratagem: they sent camels laden with gifts to the townspeople, but armed soldiers sat in the baskets.
Jaffa is mentioned four times in the Old Testament - for example, Lebanese cedars were brought to this port in rafts for the construction of Solomon's temple. From here the prophet Jonah began his journey. Jaffa also appears in the New Testament: here the Apostle Peter raised his disciple Tavifa. In the Hellenistic era in the city stood the troops of Alexander the Great, in the Jewish War, the Romans burned Jaffa to the ground.
In 636 Jaffa was captured by the Arabs, the revival of the port began. Richard the Lionhearted and Saladin fought for it. In the 14th century Muslims, out of fear of new crusades again destroyed the city. At the end of the 16th century Jaffa was a pile of ruins. The Ottoman Turks began to rebuild it in the 17th century: they rebuilt Christian churches and inns on the way to Jerusalem and Galilee. In 1799 Napoleon invaded the Holy Land - he captured Jaffa, his troops organised a terrible massacre here, then the plague fell on the city. Life returned here only years later.
In the early 20th century, several dozen families bought plots of land in the dunes north of the old port: here they decided to build the first Jewish city of Palestine. This is how modern Tel Aviv came to be, of which ancient Jaffa later became a part.
In the nineties of the last century monuments were restored here, many art galleries, theatres, souvenir shops, restaurants, pedestrian streets appeared. Jaffa has become a romantic spot by the sea. On Kedumim Square stands the baroque church of St Peter, built by Franciscans in the late 19th century on the foundations of the crusader fortress. A lighthouse stands out among the old buildings, standing "by the sea" and belonging, as the guides assure, to Simon the tanner, a friend of the Apostle Peter, mentioned in the Acts of the Holy Apostles. The ancient Al-Bahr Mosque is depicted on a painting by the painter Lebrun (1675), it is the oldest functioning mosque in the city. In Clock Square stands a beautiful clock tower, built in 1906 in honour of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, later overthrown by the Young Turk revolution.
Most of the archaeological finds in Tel Aviv are made on Jaffa Hill. Here an ancient Egyptian gate some three and a half thousand years old has been restored. The Jaffa Museum is housed in an 18th-century building built on the ruins of a Crusader fortress.
The private Farkash Gallery has the world's largest collection of historical posters of Israel. The city's flea market offers both antiques and inexpensive pure cotton clothing. The second market, the harbour market, is rich in seafood and oysters. And local hummus Tel Avivites consider the best in Israel.
