The New Student's Reference Work/Jaffa

Jaf'fa or Jop'pa, a town situated on the seacoast of Syria, about 33 miles northwest of Jerusalem. Jaffa is a place of great beauty as well as of great age. Here, according to fable, Andromeda was chained to a rock and left to be devoured by a sea-monster. It was the port of Jerusalem in the time of David and Solomon. From here Jonah sailed for Tarshish. It was at Jaffa that Peter saw the vision that taught him that Christ came to save Jew and Gentile alike. It reached its greatest importance during the crusades, when it became the principal landing-place of the warriors of Christendom. In 1799 it was bombarded by Bonaparte, and upon the surrender of the town a cruel massacre of Turkish prisoners took place. The exports are soap, leather, oranges, wheat and sesame. The open harbor, the old walls, the yellow sandbanks and the large orange gardens are the chief features. There is a railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem, a distance of 54 miles. Population 45,000.