3-047-119 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Joppa, from the exhibition of Mr. H. A. Harper's views of the Holy Land, 1872. 'Our Engraving represents [a] View of Jaffa, the ancient Joppa, that well-known, but very incommodious, seaport on the Syrian coast, which is still the ordinary approach to Jerusalem, and which was used for maritime traffic in King Solomon's reign. It has no harbour, but the steamers, from Alexandria or elsewhere, lie off the shore, a mile and a half or two miles distant...If the weather is rough, and the wind blows on shore, they dare not stop, but must go on to Beyrout. When the steamer is about to land passengers here, a crowd of Arab boats is soon around her, all the men yelling at the top of their voices, for the luggage to be thrown overboard to them. The entrance to the port is not inviting; a long reef of partly sunken rocks, extending a mile in front of the coast, has but two practicable openings, and the one usually taken is only 12 ft. wide. The position of the boats going out in Mr. Harper's view shows where this opening is situated. The little town is built on a rounded hill...It has a market-place full of Arabs, and great business is done in oranges...On the land side it is surrounded with orchards of oranges, apricots, lemons, and other fruit'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.