A limestone hill of vaulted lanes and a clock tower above a working harbor.
What Jaffa looks like
The port sits at the foot of a limestone hill, its stone quay and breakwater still used by small fishing boats and pleasure craft. Narrow vaulted lanes climb from the water past arched doorways and wood-shuttered windows, the stone laid in uneven courses and patched with plaster in places.
stands over Kedumim Square at the top of the hill, a pale stucco tower with a bell rising above the rooftops. The stands a short walk east on Yefet Street, built between 1900 and 1903 from local limestone.
South of the old city, the stone lanes around Beit Eshel Street hold the flea market, shopfronts with wooden shutters and carved doors opening onto narrow paved alleys strung with lights. A mosque with a slim minaret and an arched stone courtyard stands among the same streets.
, the garden terraced into the hill above the port, looks back along the curve of the Tel Aviv shoreline from a stone path and a timber footbridge. The ground drops steeply from the garden wall to the breakwater below.
Shot in Jaffa
The 1912 documentary The Ancient Port of Jaffa filmed its own crew arriving by ship at the harbor. It then walked the street near the Custom House, the auction market and the public fountain on Jaffa Road, the three stops its own intertitles name. The Israeli series Fauda shot part of its third season in Jaffa, without naming a specific street.
The Ancient Port of Jaffa, 1912
The documentary's crew is shown arriving on a steamship, then walking the street near the Custom House. It goes on to the auction market and the public fountain on Jaffa Road, the three stops its own intertitles name. The quay and the stone breakwater below the old city are still standing, though none of the three named stops survives as a building a camera could find today.
What Jaffa can double for
Valletta in Malta
Valletta's limestone blocks rise straight from the Grand Harbour, the same way Jaffa's stone hill rises from its own small port, with narrow lanes climbing between the two. Valletta's fortifications are taller and more regular than Jaffa's rounded arches, so a wide shot of the ramparts would give the difference away. Try searching limestone fortifications now.
Rhodes Old Town in Rhodes, Greece
Rhodes Old Town kept its Ottoman era stone lanes and arched passageways after four centuries under the same empire that rebuilt Jaffa's own waterfront. Rhodes has taller fortress walls and wider paved squares, so a tight lane shot resembles Jaffa more closely than its main gates do. Try searching Ottoman era stone lanes now.
Essaouira in Morocco
Essaouira's fortified stone harbor was used for a fictional city in the television series Game of Thrones, which shows a stone rampart over open water can carry more than one real identity on screen. Its ramparts and cannon emplacements are North African rather than Ottoman, so a shot that includes them would give away the difference from Jaffa. Try searching fortified stone harbor now.
