restaurant
Abu Hassan (Ali Karavan)
A Jaffa hummus counter running since 1971, famous for masabacha made with whole chickpeas and extra tahini. It sells out and closes by mid-afternoon, and the queue starts well before that.
1 km · about 5 min drive
AsiaIsraelTel Aviv
Jaffa
Tel Aviv, Israel · Asia
About Jaffa
Jaffa is worth a stop: 10 minutes from Tel Aviv, 52km from Caesarea Maritima.
Jaffa is in Tel Aviv, Israel, with about 100,000 people. You drive on the right here. The nearest town is Tel Aviv, about 4 km away.
Jaffa (Hebrew: יָפוֹ, romanised: Yāfō, pronounced [jaˈfo] ; Arabic: يَافَا, romanised: Yāfā, pronounced [ˈjaːfaː]), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop onRead more
the Mediterranean coastline.
Excavations at Jaffa indicate that the city was settled as early as the Early Bronze Age. The city is referenced in several ancient Egyptian and Assyrian documents. Biblically, Jaffa is noted as one of the boundaries of the tribe of Dan and as a port through which Lebanese cedars were imported for the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Under Persian rule, Jaffa was given to the Phoenicians. The city features in the biblical story of Jonah and the Greek legend of Andromeda. Later, the city served as the major port of Hasmonean Judea. However, its importance declined during the Roman period due to the construction of Caesarea.
Jaffa was contested during the Crusades, when it presided over the County of Jaffa and Ascalon. It is associated with the 1192 Battle of Jaffa and subsequent Treaty of Jaffa, a truce between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, as well as a later 1229 peace treaty. In 1799, Napoleon also sacked the town in the Siege of Jaffa, and in the First World War the British took the city in the 1917 Battle of Jaffa, and under their watch, as part of Mandatory Palestine, ethnic tensions culminated in the 1921 Jaffa riots.
As an Arab majority city in the Ottoman era, Jaffa became known starting from the 19th century for its expansive orchards and fruits, including its namesake Jaffa orange. It was also a Palestinian hub for journalism in Mandatory Palestine in the 20th century, where Falastin and Al-Difa' newspapers were established. After the 1948 Palestine War, most of its Arab population fled or were expelled, and the city became part of then newly established state of Israel, and was unified into a single municipality with Tel Aviv in 1950. Today, Jaffa is one of Israel's mixed cities, with approximately 37% of the city being Arab.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is there to see near Jaffa?
Within an hour or so of Jaffa: Abu Hassan (Ali Karavan) (1 km), Yad Vashem (50 km), Caesarea Maritima (52 km), Church of the Holy Sepulchre (54 km).
Are there any good drives near Jaffa?
The nearest famous roads are King's Highway and Scorpions Ascent (Ma'ale Akrabim).
Where is Jaffa?
Jaffa is in Tel Aviv, Israel, about 4 km from Tel Aviv.
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Quick Information
- Population
- 100,000
- Continent
- Asia
- Country
- Israel
- Region
- Tel Aviv
- Timezone
- Asia/Jerusalem
- Coordinates
- 32.0504, 34.7522
Tags
Worth the detour from Jaffa
8 notable places within an hour's drive.
museum
Yad Vashem
Israel's official memorial to the Holocaust, with deeply moving exhibits and a striking modernist museum built into a mountainside.
50 km · about 60 min drive
ancient ruins
Caesarea Maritima
A spectacular Roman-era port city with a grand amphitheater, aqueducts, and crusader fortifications on the Mediterranean coast.
52 km · about 60 min drive
cathedral
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Christianity's holiest site, built on the traditional locations of Jesus's crucifixion and burial.
54 km · about 65 min drive
landmark
Jerusalem Old City
A walled sacred city of one square kilometer containing holy sites for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam within four historic quarters.
55 km · about 65 min drive
landmark
Western Wall (Wailing Wall)
The holiest site where Jews can pray, a 2,000-year-old limestone remnant of the Second Temple retaining wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.
55 km · about 65 min drive
landmark
Dome of the Rock
The iconic gold-domed Islamic shrine on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, built in 691 CE over the sacred Foundation Stone.
55 km · about 65 min drive
cathedral
Church of the Nativity
One of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world, built over the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
58 km · about 65 min drive
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