Gaza City
— — a coastline older than most of the world's cities.
Not only on a wall.
“Gaza City has stood on this stretch of Mediterranean coast for more than three thousand years. The Great Omari Mosque rises from the old quarter; the fishing port at al-Mina predates it by centuries. The light off the sea is the same light that has met the city through every age of its long, continuous life. — from the studio
Gaza City, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Gaza City sits on a low rise on the eastern Mediterranean coast, in the northern third of the Gaza Strip, about 78 kilometres southwest of Tel Aviv and 25 kilometres north of Khan Younis. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, with archaeological layers reaching back to the Bronze Age and a documented urban history of more than 3,000 years. Its pre-2023 population was roughly 590,000. The city has been part of Egyptian, Philistine, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mamluk, Ottoman and British administrations in turn.
The Great Omari Mosque anchors the old city. Its present structure was rebuilt in the 12th century on the foundations of a Byzantine church that itself stood on a Roman temple; the minaret follows a Mamluk pattern. Limestone from the surrounding hills built most of the older quarters. The Pasha's Palace, attributed in legend to the Mamluk sultan Baybars (r. 1260–1277), served as a seat of government for centuries. Much of this older stone fabric has carried the weight of every administration the city has outlasted.
Gaza's western edge is roughly 40 kilometres of Mediterranean coastline. The old fishing port at al-Mina has been a working harbour since antiquity; small wooden boats called hasaka still operate from its slipway when conditions allow. The fishing fleet's range at sea has long been constrained, but the catch — sardines, sea bream, the small local crab — has fed the city for as long as it has been a city. The beach south of the port runs unbroken for kilometres of fine grey sand.