Jaffa and the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project

Jaffa (Canaanite Yapu; Heb. Yafo; Gk. Joppa; Ar. Yafa) is situated south of the modern city of Tel Aviv on the coast of Israel between Caesarea Maritima and Gaza, about 60 km northwest of Jerusalem. The site consists of an ancient tell of approximately 3 ha built on a kurkar sandstone ridge overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and during various periods also featured a sprawling lower city of as much as 6 ha. As Jaffa is an important site and port along the coast of the southern Levant, its occupation reflects nearly every major period from the Middle Bronze Age to the present, while the lower city experienced intermittent periods of substantial growth from the Hellenistic period onward. The mound’s stratigraphy was accessible following the abandonment of buildings in the center of the town during the British Mandate (1917–1947). The Ottoman period buildings on the upper part of the mound were destroyed or fell into ruins as a result of the British