Jaffa from Hotel Window
“Jaffa,” “Joppa” or “Yafa” is a city with a history. Traditionally it is the oldest city in the world.
No city in the world has had a more remarkable record. It has been alternately Pagan, Jew, Moslem, Arab, Mameluke and Christian. It has been sacked and wasted by war, swept by pestilence, fire and sword, rebuilt, walled and fortified only to be again destroyed.
The town is defended by a wall, on which a few old guns are mounted. Its dirty lanes and alleys are uninviting, but this aspect is redeemed by the freshness and beauty of its towering palms, its lemon groves and its orange orchards and fruit gardens. The sudden transition from the discomfort of the ship to these quiet gardens is something to be remembered. A traveler says, “In March and April these Jaffa gardens are indeed enchanting. The air is over-loaded with the mingled perfume of oranges, apples, apricots, quinces, plums and China trees in bloom.”
The legendary and historic associations combine to make Jaffa a center of interest to the visitor, who, coming to Palestine by sea, there first sets foot upon the soil of the land where the "Savior was born.”
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