Type Clock tower Completed 1903 Opened 1903 Architectural style Ottoman architecture | Location Jaffa, Israel Floor count 3 Floors 3 Construction started 1900 | |
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Address East of the Clock Tower, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel Similar Jaffa Port, St Peter's Church - Jaffa, Mahmoudiya Mosque, Al‑Bahr Mosque, Tel Aviv Promenade | ||
Jaffa clock tower israel the full story using rare photos
The Jaffa Clock Tower (Hebrew: מגדל השעון יפו, Migdal haShaon Yafo, Arabic: يافا برج الساعة) is one of seven clock towers built in Palestine during the Ottoman period. The others are located in Safed, Acre, Nazareth, Haifa, Nablus (West Bank) and Jerusalem, the last being the only one that has not survived until today.
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The Jaffa Clock Tower stands in the middle of Yefet street at the northern entrance of Jaffa, the ancient city that is now a part of the greater Tel Aviv. The tower, which is made of limestone, incorporates two clocks and a plaque commemorating the Israelis killed in the battle for the town in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Jaffa clock tower
History
The tower was built to commemorate the silver jubilee of the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abd al-Hamid II. The tower was built with contributions of the residents of the city, Arabs and Jews, headed by Joseph Bey Moyal.
The first stone of the tower was laid in September 1900. Within a year two floors were built and the construction of a third floor had begun. In 1903 the clock tower had been erected. It is similar to the clock tower of Khan al-Umdan in Acre that is dedicated to the same purpose. More than a hundred similar clock towers were built throughout the Ottoman Empire due to this occasion.
In 1965 the Jaffa Clock Tower was renovated, new clocks were installed and colorful mosaic windows designed by Arie Koren to describe the history of Jaffa were added.
In 2004 the clock tower appeared on an Israeli stamp worth 1.3 Sheqels. It was together with the clock towers in Safed, Acre, Haifa and Jerusalem featured in a series of Ottoman Clock Towers In Israel.