Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Old Jaffa and the Port
יָפוֹ הָעַתִּיקָה Yafo HaAtika
The harbour the country arrived through, still fishing, now with galleries in the vaults above it.
A working port for more than three thousand years
Visiting Old Jaffa and the Port
- What to wear
- Anything at the port and the market. Covered shoulders if you plan to enter a mosque or a church.
- Photography
- Fine throughout. Ask before photographing traders and worshippers.
- Cost
- Free to walk. The port restaurants are among the more expensive in the city.
- When to go
- Late afternoon into evening, when the light comes off the sea and the kitchens open.
- Access
- Cobbles, slopes and steps in the old core. The port and the promenade below it are level and step-free.
What to wear at every site in Israel
Etiquette
- DoJaffa is mixed. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are each somebody’s rest day, so expect different places shut on each of them.
- DoThe flea market is a working market. Ask the price before you pick something up.
- DoDuring Ramadan many places close through the day and fill after dark. Asking before you sit down saves confusion.
- AvoidDo not walk into a mosque or a church during a service to look around. Several welcome visitors between prayers instead.
- DoThe harbour is a working fishing port before it is a promenade. Give the boats, the nets and the ramps room.
Local tip
Skip the wishing bridge and go down to the fishermen’s harbour early instead, when the boats come in and nothing is for sale yet.
Hours, prices, access and security arrangements change: check official sources before you go, and follow the instructions of site and security staff. In an emergency, call the local emergency number (in Israel: police 100, ambulance 101, or 112 from a mobile).
The history of Old Jaffa and the Port
One of the oldest working ports
Jaffa appears in Egyptian records of the fifteenth century BCE and has been in use ever since. The book of Ezra describes cedar for the Temple in Jerusalem being floated to this shore.
Jonah and Andromeda
Jonah sails from Jaffa in the book of Jonah, and Greek myth chains Andromeda to the rocks offshore. Both are stories attached to the harbour rather than anything the excavations show.
The gateway
Until Haifa’s deep-water port opened in 1933, most immigrants and pilgrims reached the country here. A reef kept ships offshore, so passengers were rowed in through the gap in small boats.
1948 and after
Jaffa’s population, overwhelmingly Arab before 1948, was largely displaced during the war, and the town was joined to the Tel Aviv municipality in 1950. It is a mixed Jewish and Arab area today, with the old core restored as studios, galleries and restaurants.
Hebrew for the visit
Phrases
- אֵיפֹה הַשּׁוּק?eifo hashuk?Where is the market?Machane Yehuda in Jerusalem and the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv are the best known. Both wind down early on Friday.
- כַּמָּה זֶה עוֹלֶה?kama ze oleh?How much does this cost?Hebrew says a price “rises”. The same verb means to go up and to immigrate to Israel.
- שֻׁלְחָן לִשְׁנַיִם, בְּבַקָּשָׁהshulchan lishnayim, bevakashaA table for two, pleaseFor four say לְאַרְבָּעָה (learbaa). Hebrew numbers take a masculine or feminine form to match what they count.
- יֵשׁ לְךָ הַמְלָצָה?yesh lecha hamlatza?Do you have a recommendation?To a woman: יֵשׁ לָךְ (yesh lach). A shopkeeper or a driver usually beats a guidebook.
- עֶרֶב טוֹבerev tovGood eveningUsed from late afternoon on. Around midday people say tzohorayim tovim instead.
Words
- יָםyamseaThe Dead Sea is יָם הַמֶּלַח, the sea of salt.
- דָּגdagfish
- שׁוּקshukmarketMachane Yehuda in Jerusalem and the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv are both simply “the shuk”.
- מִסְעָדָהmisadarestaurant
- שַׁעַרshaargateThe gates of the Old City walls all carry names built on this word.
- עִירircity; townFeminine, with an irregular plural: עָרִים.
Market and Money: all the phrases · All 157 phrases in the phrasebook
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