Jaffa (, ; , ), 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 on 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.
Etymology The town was mentioned in Egyptian sources and the Amarna letters as Yapu. Mythology says that it is named for Yafet (Japheth), one of the sons of Noah, the one who built it after the Flood.One example of this legend is the 16th-century French pilgrim Denis Possot who recorded, "Jaffe, est le port de la Terre saincte, anciennement nommé Joppe, faict et construict premierment en ville et cité grande à merveilles et de grant renom, par Japhet, fils de Noé." in his Le Voyage de la Terre Sainte (Geneva: Slatkine Reprints 1971, reprint of Paris edition, 1890, orig. 1532), p. 155.Another pilgrim, Sir Richard of Guylforde, wrote,"This Jaffe was sometyme a grete Cytie [...] and it was one of the firste Cyties of the worlde founded by Japheth, Noes sone, and beryth yet his name." In the pilgrimage narrative from 1506, recorded by his chaplain in 1511, edited by Sir Henry Ellis (London: Camden Society, 1851), p. 16. The Hellenist tradition links the name to Iopeia, or Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda. An outcropping of rocks near the harbour is reputed to have been the place where Andromeda was rescued by Perseus. Pliny the Elder associated the name with Iopa, daughter of Aeolus, god of the wind. The medieval Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi referred to it as Yaffa.le Strange, 1890, pp. 550-551
History
Ancient Jaffa was built on a high kurkar sandstone ridge, with a broad view of the coastline, giving it a strategic importance in military history.Stacey Jennifer Miller, The Lion Temple of Jaffa: Archaeological Investigations of the Late Bronze Age Egyptian Occupation in Canaan. BA thesis , University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 The tell of Jaffa, created through the accumulation of debris and landfill over the centuries, made the hill even higher.
Early Bronze Age Early Bronze I Jaffa was settled as early as the Early Bronze Age I period (4th millennium BCE). This is evidenced by numerous potsherds identified in excavations. The scarcity of material from this period is likely due to early remains being deeply buried beneath later occupational layers.
Early Bronze III While no direct archaeological have been found, some scholars have hypothesised that during the Early Bronze Age III (c. 2850–2400 BCE), Jaffa served as a natural harbour in the developing trade route between the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the city of Byblos (in present-day Lebanon).
Middle Bronze Age Middle Bronze II The earliest remains of an actual settlement date to the 18th century BCE. Jaffa formed part of a broader pattern of settlements, comprising small villages, fortresses, and watchtowers, established in the central coastal plain during this period. These include sites such as Tel Aphek, Tel Gerisa, and Yavne-Yam. Excavations in Areas B–D on the northern slope of the mound revealed fortifications, including an earthen rampart that likely supported a mudbrick superstructure, which has not survived. Additional fortification elements, including traces of a gate dated to the 17th–16th centuries BCE, were uncovered in Area A on the eastern slope. These features are characteristic of Middle Bronze Age sites in the Levant. Middle Bronze Age Jaffa was relatively modest in scale, covering approximately three hectares, but nonetheless occupied a strategic position along maritime trade routes connecting the Levant, Egypt, and Cyprus. Evidence of this trade includes imported Middle Cypriot pottery types, such as Black-on-Red Ware and White-Painted Ware, as well as Egyptian Hyksos scarabs discovered at the site.
Late Bronze Age Egyptian period As late as the 15th century BCE Jaffa came under the imperial control of Egypt's New Kingdom. It is listed among the cities conquered by Thutmose III () of the Eighteenth Dynasty, whose campaigns in the Levant are generally dated to the late 16th through early 15th centuries BCE. Jaffa likely served as a ḥtm-base—a fortified harbour used to monitor movement along the coast.
Jaffa is mentioned in Papyrus Harris 500, which contains a partially preserved tale known as The Taking of Joppa. The story recounts a Canaanite revolt against Egyptian rule. According to the account, the rebel leader left Jaffa—possibly to acquire supplies—and encountered the Egyptian general Djehuty, who killed him. Djehuty then tricked the remaining rebels by hiding 200 soldiers in sacks, which were transported into the city under the guise of goods. Once inside, the soldiers emerged and captured Jaffa, apparently without a fight. This tale bears a striking resemblance to the later Greek story of the Trojan Horse, as recounted by Homer, although it predates it by at least two centuries. The historicity of the story is questionable, considering its folkloristic character, but scholars have noted it may have conveyed historical memory, echoing Jaffa's importance to the Egyptian rule in the 15th century BCE.
Around 1350 BCE, Jaffa was of strategic importance as attested by the Amarna letters. It served as residence for Egyptian officials and as the administrative centre of the central coastal plain. The site is mentioned under its Egyptian name Yapu, along its royal granaries. During that period, Amarna Letter EA 138 implied that the Pharaoh suggested Rib-Hadda, the king of Byblos to seek refuge in the residence of an Egyptian official named Api. A clay-inscribed letter from the 12th century BCE found at the "Governor's Palace" (Building 1104) at the nearby Tel Aphek, which served as a Royal-agricultural estate, recounts the supply of 12,000 to 15,000 litres of wheat to Jaffa. These were received by a man named Tur-šimati, likely an Egyptian official.
Archaeological investigations in Jaffa have revealed massive fortifications and a monumental gateway from this period, nicknamed "Ramesses Gate", as well as a temple titled the "Lion Temple". Numerous Egyptian artifacts such as scarabs were found, attesting to Egyptian cultural influences.
Iron Age Early Iron Age (11th–10th centuries BCE) In the Hebrew Bible, Jaffa is depicted as the northernmost Philistine city, bordering the Israelite territories – more specifically those of Tribe of Dan (hence the modern term "Gush Dan" for the centre of the coastal plain). The Israelites did not manage to take Jaffa from the Philistines.
Jaffa is mentioned four times in the Hebrew Bible: as the northernmost Philistine city by the coast, bordering the territory of the Tribe of Dan (); as port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for Solomon's Temple (); as the place whence the prophet Jonah embarked for Tarshish (); and again as port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for the Second Temple of Jerusalem ().
Late Iron Age (8th century BCE) In the late 8th century BCE, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, recorded conquering Jaffa, along with Beth Dagon, Beneberak and Azor, from their Sidqa, the Philistine king of Ashkelon. This is the only historical mention of Jaffa since the end of the Late Bronze Age in the 12th century BCE, and the late 6th century BCE. The coastal plain from Jaffa to the Mount Carmel was incorporated following Sennacherib's campaigns to the Province of Dor. The construction of the fortified site at Tell Qudadi during that time, at the mouth of the Yarkon River, just north of Jaffa, has led scholars to suggest that Jaffa was a port town of secondary importance during that time.
Archaeological remains from the 8th century are meager, in comparison to those found from the previous Late Bronze Age and subsequent Persian periods. The most significant finds were excavated in Area A on Tel Yafo atop the remains of Late Bronze Age fortifications. These Iron Age remains were severely damaged by levelling and construction during the subsequent Persian period. The finds include remains of walls, which were identified as part of a farmstead built atop Jaffa's mound. Several pits were found nearby, containing pottery vessels used for storage, preparation of food and eating, attesting to the domestic nature of the site.
Persian period Jaffa was awarded to Sidon along with Dor and the Sharon plain, as attested in an inscription on the Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II.
Hellenistic period
Jaffa is not mentioned in Alexander the Great's coastal campaign, but during the Wars of the Diadochi, Antigonus Monophthalmus captured Jaffa in 315 BCE. Ptolemy I Soter later destroyed it in 312 BCE. Despite this, Jaffa was resettled and became a Ptolemaic mint site in the third century BCE. Archaeological evidence from this period includes a watchtower and numerous stamped amphora handles. Additionally, the city is mentioned in several Zeno papyri. The area was transferred to Seleucid control after the Battle of Paneas in 198 BCE. Together with the other primarily Phoenician-inhabited coastal plain cities of Gaza, Ascalon, Dor, and Acre, Jaffa became highly Hellenised during this period, becoming standard-bearers for the spread of Greek culture in the region.
According to , probably in the 163–162 BCE years during the Maccabean revolt, Jaffa's non-Jewish inhabitants invited its Jewish foreign residents onto boats, subsequently sinking them and drowning hundreds. In retaliation, Judas Maccabeus attacked Jaffa, setting the harbour on fire, destroying ships, and killing many inhabitants, though he did not attempt to hold the city. By 147–146 BCE, his brother Jonathan Apphus expelled the garrison of Seleucid king Demetrius II from Jaffa but did not conquer the city. In 143 BCE, Simon Thassi established a garrison in Jaffa, expelled the non-Jewish inhabitants to prevent them from collaborating with the Seleucid commander Tryphon, and fortified the city. During the operations of Antiochus VII Sidetes in Judaea, he demanded the surrender of Jaffa among other cities. Simon negotiated a settlement by agreeing to pay a smaller tribute. Simon's capture of Jaffa is earlier praised in 1 Maccabees because of the city's strategic importance as a port.