Acre (Akko)עכו

Land of Israel — Crusader Kingdom

Acre (Akko; Arabic Akka), at the northern end of Haifa Bay in northern Israel, was settled about 3000 BCE and in Hellenistic times was called Ptolemais. Taken by the Crusaders in 1104, it became the chief port of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and its capital in the thirteenth century, until the Mamluks captured it in 1291. Pope Gregory X was there on crusade when elected in 1271. Its Jewish community drew French scholars, and Nachmanides settled and taught in Acre after arriving in 1267, dying around 1270. Revived under Ottoman-era governors in the eighteenth century, it withstood Napoleon's siege of 1799. Today it is a mixed Jewish and Arab city; its Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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