Yesterday I parked near the Court House in downtown Haifa. Like always, the impresive Sail Tower caught my eye. But from a certain perspective, another building, 100 meter nearer, reminds of past times. I raised my Iphone and took the picture were you can see the Al Jarina Clock Tower built to celebrate the 25 year of Abdul Hamid II reign over the Ottoman Empire. (Al Jarina means "the barn", name of the mosque on the same site). The Tower was built on the hub of downtown commerce on its day, now relegated to stand between parking lots and new towers.
Better was the fate of the Yaffa Clock Tower still standing on its own small square and with a working clock. (see below).
As for the Haifa clock, it was renovated twice in the last 50 years but it has no clock (it had 4), there is no public visiting the place and has been modified too much. I "lent" a postcard (published in the Hebrew wikipedia) from 1905 showing the Tower. You don't see there the crescent moon it has today and you cannot see today the Maguen David (David's six point star) that you see in the postcard if you strain your eyes, inside the lower circle. The postcard was published by "Verlag Von Otto Fisher 1905" and the interpretation is "Haifa (Minaret)", that it is not, the Minaret standing at the rigth side of the Tower. On the horizon, a ship, but lets remember that there was no port yet, just the bay. The port was built in 1922.
Finally another shameful acquisition from the wiki: the commemorating inscription in beautiful Arab calligraphy reminding the inhabitants their good luck of being subjugated to the same Sultan all of 25 years. In the lower row the year 1316, that happens to be 1898/9 of the infidels.
Finally another shameful acquisition from the wiki: the commemorating inscription in beautiful Arab calligraphy reminding the inhabitants their good luck of being subjugated to the same Sultan all of 25 years. In the lower row the year 1316, that happens to be 1898/9 of the infidels.
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