Jaffa Clock Tower

The Jaffa Clock Tower (Hebrew: מגדל השעון יפו, Migdal haShaon Yafo, Arabic: برج الساعة في يافا, Turkish: Yafa Saat Kulesi) stands in the middle of the north end of Yefet Street in Jaffa, Tel Aviv. The limestone tower was constructed in 1900 and initiated by Joseph Bey Moyal, a Jewish businessman from Jaffa, and was made possible with contributions from all communities of Jaffa, including Jews, Armenians, Maronites and Arabs. It was constructed to commemorate the silver jubilee of the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II. It also helped develop the center of the town, in a time when Jaffa was undergoing rapid modernization. The tower, which incorporates two clocks, is one of seven clock towers built in Ottoman Palestine. The others are located in Safed, Acre, Nazareth, Haifa, Nablus. A plaque was later inserted to commemorate the Israelis killed in the battle for the town during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.