Joppa in the Bible:

Joshua 19:46-47, allotted to the tribe of Dan, but they failed to take it and they moved north;
2 Chr.2:16, Joppa was an important seaport for Solomon. The cedars from Lebanon were floated down from Phoenicia to Joppa and then transported to Jerusalem for building the palace and temple;
Johan 1:3, Jonah sailed from Joppa to Tarshish;
Ezra 3:7, Cedars from Lebanon were floated to Joppa for the exiles to rebuild the temple;
Acts 9:36-43, Peter raises Dorcas to life here;
Acts 10, Peter has a vision in the house of Simon the tanner that leads Peter to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea.

This is the modern city of Tel Aviv. The first settlements in Jaffa and by the Yarkon river are in the Stone Age (5000 BC)Jaffa is mentioned in writing for the first time in 1468 BC when Thutmose III captured it.
Any importance Joffa had was forfeited when Herod the Great built a new seaport at Caesarea by the sea. As Caesarea deteriorate with time the importance of Joffa was restored.
The modern city of Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 when 60 Jewish families moved out of Jaffa to the north side to settle in the sand dunes. In 1921 this settlement became independent and grew uncontrollably into the confusing urban sprawl of today. Immigrants began to pour into Israel up to 1948 and continued through the 20th century.
There are two archaeological sites in Tel Aviv:

1. An excavation across from St. Peter’s Church in a restored Turkish bathhouse called the Antiquities Museum of Tel Aviv-Yafo;
2. A archaeological site on the north side of the Yarkon River uncovered a settlement of the Philistines from 1100 BC with Philistines temples, Iron Age houses. Also, the Eretz Israel Museum.