JOPPA (j6P'Pa). (Heb. or Nt;', yaw-fo', beauty; Gr. '1677,7, ee-oit.'15ay, which name is still preserved in the Arabic Yafa or Jaffa), a seaport town and haven on the coast of Palestine, situated on an eminence, in a sandy soil, about forty miles northwest of Jerusalem, and nine miles west northwest from Ramleh.
(1) Location. The place existed when the Is raelites invaded the land of Canaan, and is men tioned as lying on the border of the tribe of Dan (Josh. xix :46). Joppa was the only port pos sessed by the Israelites till Herod formed the har bor at Cxsarea ; and hence it was here that the timber from Lebanon destined for both the first and second temples was landed (1 Kings v :9; 2 Chron. :t6; Ezra iii :7). It was the place to which Jonah went in expectation of finding a ship bound on some distant voyage, and where he found one going to Tarshish (Jonah i :3). Joppa belonged to the powers which were suc cessively dominant on this shore; and it does not again appear in Jewish history till the time of Judas Maccabxus, when the inhabitants having, contrary to the faith of treaties, thrown 200 Jews into the sea, the hero, to avenge them, surprised the haven by night, and set the shipping on fire (2 Mace. xii :3-7).
(2) Visit of Peter. It is mentioned in the New Testament only in connection with the visit of the Apostle Peter, who here raised Tabitha from the dead, and lodged in the outskirts of the town with .Simon the tanner, when favored with the vision which taught him to 'call no man common or unclean'(Acts ix:36-39; x:5, 8; xi:5).
(3) History. During the Jewish war Joppa was taken by surprise by Cestius, when it was plundered and burnt, and 8,400 of the inhabitants were put to the sword (Joseph. De Bell. fled. ii. 18, to). Its ruins afterwards became the refuge of a great number of persons who had escaped from the destruction of other cities by Vespa sian, and who took to piracy for a subsistence. From the first crusade down to our own day Joppa has been the landing-place of pilgrims go ing to Jerusalem, and is hence mentioned in al most all the innumerable itineraries and books of travels in the Holy Land which have appeared in different languages. There is still here an hos pital for pilgrims, dependent on the convent of St. Salvador in Jerusalem, and occupied by Span ish monks. In 1797 the place was taken by storm by the French army under 'Napoleon, and was sacked without mercy ; when the Turkish prison ers, to the number of 5oo or 600, were carried to the neighboi:ng sand-hills and put to death by his order.
Josephus describes the natural unfitness of Jaffa for a haven in terms very similar to those which modern travelers employ (De Bell. fled. iii. 9, 3). The port is so dangerous, from exposure to the open sea, that the surf often rolls in with the ut most violence, and even so lately as 1842 a lieu tenant and some sailors were lost in pulling to the shore from an English steamer that lay in the har bor (Stent's Egypt and the Holy Land, ii :28).
But, however bad, it was the only port which ex isted within reach of the important district which lay behind it inland; and the miserable state of the ancient roads, or rather perhaps the absence of any roads, made a near harbor, however incom modious, of more immediate consequence than a good one at a greater distance.
(4) Modern. Condition. The town is ap proached on the land side through rich and ex tensive gardens and orchards, and is very pictur esquely situated upon an eminence or promontory, which is crowned by a castle. It chiefly faces the north; and the buildings appear, from the steep ness of the site, as if standing upon one another. The most prominent features of the architecture from without are the flattened domes by which most of the buildings are surmounted, and the appearance of arched vaults. The aspect of the whole is mean and gloomy, and inside the place has all the appearance of a poor though large vil lage. There are no public buildings to engage the eye, and the houses are mean and comfortless. No ancient ruins have been observed, nor are any expected to be in a place so often destroyed in war. There are three mosques in Joppa, and Latin, Greek and Armenian convents. The for-. mer is that in which European pilgrims and trav elers usually lodge. The town still enjoys a con siderable trade with the neighboring coasts. Its chief manufacture is soap, which is largely con sumed in the baths of Cairo and Damascus; and its excellent fruits are exported in large quanti ties, especially watzrmelons, which are very ex tensively cultivated here and in other parts of the plain of Sharon. The inhabitants are said not to exceed +Goo, of whom one-fourth are reckoned to be ChTistians. A British consul is now resi dent in the place. (Raumer's Paliistina; Volney, i :136, sq.. Chateaubriand, :io3 ; Clarke, iv :438, sq.; Buckingham, i :227, sq.; Richter, p. 12 ; Rich ardson, ii :16; Skinner, i :175-184; Robinson, i :J8 ; Stent, ii :27 ; Thomson, Land and Book, ii:273.)