The back story
Tel Aviv-Yafo: the old port and the white city
An ancient port on its hill, a city founded on the dunes in 1909, a UNESCO Bauhaus city, the beach.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © מקף־עברי · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsTel Aviv-Yafo is two cities that grew into one. Jaffa is the old port, its stone lanes climbing a hill above the harbour; Tel Aviv was founded in 1909, UNESCO notes, on the dunes immediately north of the walled port city. Between the early 1930s and the 1950s, on Patrick Geddes’s plan, architects trained in Europe built the White City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003 for its outstanding ensemble of the Modern Movement.
Along the shore, a promenade links the two, from Jaffa’s harbour to the old port in the north.
Jaffa
The old city and the port, the Clock Tower, St Peter’s Church, the Ilana Goor Museum and the flea market.
The White City
The Bauhaus buildings of Rothschild Boulevard, Bialik Street and Dizengoff, inscribed by UNESCO in 2003.
The shore
The promenade from Jaffa to the Tel Aviv Port, the city’s beaches, Gordon Pool and the Marina.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Artem.G · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsThe markets
The Carmel Market, the Nahalat Binyamin crafts fair, the Levinsky Market and Sarona Market.
Walk Jaffa in the morning, the White City in the afternoon and the promenade at sunset.
Our advice: Friday morning is the city at its best, at the markets and the crafts fair; most of it then closes for Shabbat.
Why it's on our list
- Jaffa
- The White City
- The shore
- The markets
Location
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More in depth
The back storyTel Aviv’s museums, stages and the Bauhaus cityThe art museum, Reuven Rubin’s house, Nahum Gutman, the opera, Batsheva and the White City.
The back storyBuying in Tel Aviv: neighbourhoods and the first stepsBauhaus flats, Neve Tzedek, Jaffa and the new towers: where people look, and the first steps.
The back storyTel Aviv on two wheels, on the water and on the roadA flat city by the sea: shared bikes, the marina, and the coast road north to Caesarea and Haifa.