JOPPA, the Greek Ίότι-τπ?, Ίότπ?, Hebrew Japho, and Arabic Yâfâ, incorrectly written Jaffa, an ancient seaport of Palestine. It is mentioned in the lists of Thothmes HI., and in an inscription of Sennacherib, but in the Bible probably in no writing older than the exile. After the exile it was the harbour of Judaea (Ezra iii. 7; Strabo, xvi. 2), and as such appears as an important point in the Maccabee wars, when it was fortified by Simon. Strabo and Josephus speak of it as a haunt of pirates, and on this account it was destroyed by Vespasian in the Jewish war. The small bay south of the town, called Birket el Kamr (“Moonpool”), is possibly the old harbour, the present one being formed by a reef having a broad entrance on the north-west and a narrow passage in the middle. The coast being quite straight and unsheltered, the port possesses neither natural nor artificial advantages. In the 5th, 6th, and 11th centuries bishops of Joppa are noticed, under the metropolitan of Jerusalem, In 1187 Saladin took the town, which was recovered by King Richard in 1191 and retaken by Malek el c Adil in 1196. In 1799 Napoleon stormed the city, then protected by walls. The fortifications were further increased at a later period by the English. The ‘modern town, the seaport of Jerusalem, with which it is connected by a carriage road in very bad repair, is built on a rounded hillock rising 100 feet above the shore; to the north and south are sandhills; to the east are gardens of oranges, pomegranates, figs, and olives. Sweet water is derived from numerous wells, and palms and bananas occur in these orchards, which cover an area of 3 square miles. The walls of the town still remain standing; the houses are of stone, well built, and the bazaars are good. The town is the ...

called also Japho in the Old Testament, which is still preserved in its modern name of Jaffa or Yafah, a sea port of Palestine, situated on an eminence in a sandy soil, about seventy miles north-west of Jerusalem. Joppa was anciently the port to Jerusalem. Here all the materials sent from Tyre for the building of Solomon’s temple were brought and landed: it was, indeed, the only port in Judea, though rocky and dangerous. It possesses still, in times of peace, a considerable commerce with the places in its vicinity; and is well inhabited, chiefly by Arabs. This was the place of landing of the western pilgrims; and here the promised pardons commenced. Here St. Peter raised Dorcas from the dead, and resided many days in the house of one Simon, a tanner, Acts ix, 36–43; and it was from this place that the Prophet Jonah embarked for Tarshish.