Old Jaffa

Perched high on a natural dolomite ridge above the Mediterranean, Old Jaffa anchors more than four millennia of seafaring history. Documented in 15th-century BCE Egyptian correspondence and stormed by Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops in 1799, this fortified maritime enclave unfolds as a labyrinth of restored, honey-hued *kurkar* limestone. At its summit stands the Franciscan Church of St. Peter, an 1894 neo-baroque structure whose brick-red bell tower overlooks the harbor where, biblical tradition holds, the prophet Jonah set sail for Tarshish. Below, a network of stepped, cobblestone alleys—each named after an astrological sign—threads through stone arches and secluded courtyards, their masonry keeping the walkways shaded and remarkably cool against the coastal Levant heat. Passing through these sculpted corridors, visitors encounter striking juxtapositions of history and contemporary craft, exemplified by Ran Morin’s 1993 *Floating Orange Tree*, an alive citrus tree suspended inside an earthenware urn above the stone pavement. At Jaffa's northern gateway stands the 1906 Ottoman clock tower, commissioned under Sultan Abdul Hamid II, constructed from rough-hewn limestone with stained-glass inserts. Standing along the seaside ramparts, travelers smell brine and roasting coffee while waves crash against the jagged sea rocks of Andromeda's mythic reef. From the promontory’s northern edge, the sensory experience culminates in a breathtaking architectural collision, where ancient stone balustrades frame the shimmering, high-rise skyline of modern Tel Aviv curving along the coastline.