Post Offices. Turkish in Rue Boustrous (also International Telegraph); German and Austrian-Hungarian, at the N.E. end of the quay; French, farther to the N.E.; Russian, on the quay, opposite the Quarantine Station.
Consuls. British Vice-Consul, J. Falanga.—United States Consular Agent, J. Hardegg.
Physicians. Dr. J. M. Keith (medical superintendent of the English Hospital); Dr. Lin (French); Dr. Lorch, Dr. Saad (both German).
Banks. Anglo-Palestine Co., Banque Ottomane, both in the Gaza Road; German Palaestina-Bank, Crédit Lyonnais, both on the quay.
English Church Services, on Sun. at 9.30 a.m. and 3.30 p.m.
Carriages. Drive 1 beshlik (3½ pias.); ½ day 10, day 20 fr.; to Jerusalem (7–8 hrs.) in the season 50–60 fr. (single seat 10–15 fr.), to Haifa (1½–2 days), 100–140 fr., according to weather.
Jaffa, Arabic Yâfâ, Gr. Joppa (pop. 47,000, viz. about 30,000 Moslems, 10,000 Christians, and 7000 Jews), originally a Phœnician colony in the land of the Philistines, is mentioned as early as the reign of Solomon (p. [472]) as the seaport of Jerusalem. The Maccabees (p. [472]) brought it under Jewish domination. During the Crusades it was repeatedly wrested from the Christians, and in 1267 it was destroyed by the Mameluke sultan Beybars. In 1799 the town was stormed by the French under Kléber (p. [444]).
The old town rises on a rock 118 ft. high, behind the Quay, built towards the end of the 17th century. Its streets are very dusty and in wet weather muddy.
The quay and its prolongation, the main arteries of traffic, lead in a curve towards the E. to the Market (Sûk), where the Semitic type of the inhabitants is very noticeable.
Beyond this market is a public garden with a Clock Tower erected by the town of Jaffa to commemorate the 25th year of the reign of the now deposed Sultan Abdul Hamid (1876–1909), and several Arabian cafés. The Gaza road leads thence to the right through the S. suburb. The Jerusalem road leads straight on through the new town and a number of orange-groves; after 12 min. a road diverges to the left to the Russian settlement, where we are shown the site of the house of Tabitha and her rock-tomb (Acts ix. 35). The Rue Boustrous leads to the left to the railway-station and the pleasant houses of the German Colony, founded in 1868 (about 350 inhab., chiefly of the ‘Temple’ sect).