Place Name
Yaffa Region (يَافَا)Place Description
The historic Yaffa region of Palestine extended along the central Mediterranean coast and its fertile hinterland, encompassing Yaffa and the surrounding coastal plain and agricultural villages. The region's position on the Mediterranean made Yaffa an important port and commercial center, connecting the Palestinian interior with maritime trade and the wider eastern Mediterranean. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the surrounding countryside had become particularly associated with citrus cultivation, alongside extensive cultivation of cereals, vegetables, orchards, and irrigated land. Villages throughout the Yaffa subdistrict relied on rainfall, wells, springs, and the region's fertile coastal soils to sustain agriculture; records from 1944/45 document substantial areas devoted to cereals and citrus in villages including Fajja, al-Khayriyya, Yazur, al-Sawalima, and al-Shaykh Muwannis.
Yaffa was also one of the principal Palestinian urban centers of the late Ottoman and Mandate periods and became internationally known for its Jaffa oranges, cultivated in the city's agricultural hinterland and exported through its port. The city and surrounding villages formed an interconnected Palestinian urban and agricultural landscape, with roads and railways linking Yaffa to Lydda, Ramla, and the surrounding countryside.Also Known As
يَافَا, JaffaPlace Type
Historical RegionMap Coordinates
Latitude
32.0549Longitude
34.7552General Notes
Note Type
Cataloging NoteNote
BWB_ID:39;POM_ID:420Updated By
Wafa Ghnaim