The first remains of a settlement which has been continuous into our own day were found on the 37m/120ft high hill above Jaffa's natural Harbor. Excavations in recent years have brought to light a wall dating from the Hyksos period (18th-16th centuries B.C.). In 1486 B.C. Pharaoh Tuthmosis III conquered Jaffa; and the excavators found a stone
door with an inscription in the name of Pharaoh Ramesses II (13th century B.C.). Around 1200 B.C. Philistines settled in Jaffa and on Tell Qasileh (north of the river Yarqon). About 1000 B.C. the town was captured by David, and his son Solomon imported cedarwood from Lebanon for the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem through the port of Jaffa or the Harbor near Tell Qasileh (2 Chronicles 2,15). In later centuries, however, the population of Jaffa was predominantly Phoenician and from the third century B.C. predominantly Greek. In the second century B.C. there were conflicts between the Greek population and the Maccabees, who in 142 B.C. set fire to Jaffa (2 Maccabees 12,3-8) and settled numbers of Jews in the town. In the first century B.C. the port of Jaffa lost its leading place to the newly founded town of Caesarea.
The Christian era in Jaffa began with the visit of the apostle Peter (Acts 9,36-43). In the fourth century it was the see of a bishop. In 636 it was conquered by the Arabs, and in the seventh and eighth centuries enjoyed a period of prosperity under the Omayyad and Abbasid Caliphs. The Crusaders destroyed the town in 1099 and then rebuilt the walls; and thereafter the port was used by pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The walls were strengthened by King Louis IX of France in 1251. The Crusader occupation came to an end, however, with the capture of the town by the Mameluke Sultan Baibars in 1267. Thereafter for many centuries Jaffa lay desolate.
From 1520 Palestine was ruled by the Ottomans, who in 1650 gave permission to Franciscan friars to build a church and pilgrim hospice. In 1799 Napoleon stayed in Jaffa on his way from Egypt to Akko. In 1807 Mahmud, whose severity earned him the name of Abu Nebut ("Father of the Cudgel"), became Pasha of Gaza and made Jaffa his capital. From his time date the Seraglio (now a museum), the nearby Hammam, the Mahmudiye Mosque and the Abu Nebut Fountain. In 1818 Jaffa had a population of 6,000. In 1834 Ibrahim Pasha captured the town and founded the suburb of Abu Kabir a little way inland.
A new period of development under European auspices began in the mid 19th century. In 1852 American Adventists established a farm on the "Mount of Hope" near the river Ayalon, but in 1857 this was pillaged and thereafter abandoned. (The site is now occupied by the Shevah College in Hamasger Street.)
The "capitulations" agreed with the Turkish government ensured great influence for the European powers in Palestine. The French built hospitals and enlarged monasteries and churches. The Russians built a church dedicated to St Peter at the "Tomb of Tabitha" on the hill of Abu Kabir. In 1866 members of the American Church of the Messiah founded a colony, which failed because of Arab hostility and the unfavorable climate. In 1869 the German Society of the Temple took over the abandoned site and established the agricultural settlement of Jaffa- Valhalla; then in 1871 they founded another settlement at Sarona, northeast of Jaffa. Farther north the Jewish settlements of Newe Tzedek and Newe Shalom were established. In 1892 French engineers built a railway line between Jaffa and Jerusalem.
In 1909 immigrants from Russia founded the purely Jewish suburb of Ahuzat Bayit, with the Herzl Grammar School (on a site now occupied by the Shalom Tower). This marked the beginning of the modern town, which was named Tel Aviv in 1910 and, following Arab riots in 1921, broke away from Jaffa and became an independent city. During the British Mandate (1920-48) wide new streets were cut through Jaffa's maze of alleys to make it easier to control disorder. By 1924 the town had a population of 35,000. A power station was built in Tel Aviv, which became the first town in the country to have an electricity supply. In 1929 renewed Arab riots led many Jews to move from Jaffa to Tel Aviv. In 1936 the port of Jaffa was closed down, and Tel Aviv built its own port at Tell Qasileh.
The United Nations plan for the partition of Palestine (1947) proposed that Jaffa (population 100,000, including 30,000 Jews) should remain Arab and Tel Aviv (population 230,000) become Jewish. In 1948, following Arab attacks, Israel forces captured Jaffa. On May 14th 1948 David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel in the former house of the first mayor of Tel Aviv, Meir Dizengoff. In 1950 the old town of Jaffa was amalgamated with the new Jewish town under the name of Tel Aviv-Yafo.
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