Akko

Akko, also known as Acre, ancient seaport in present-day Israel, on the Bay of Haifa. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Founded before 1500 bc, it first appears in recorded history during the reign (1504-1450 bc) of the Pharaoh Thutmose III. The town was captured by the Assyrians around 700 bc and practically depopulated under Ashurbanipal. In 332 bc it was incorporated into the empire of Alexander the Great. Ptolemy II, king of Egypt, seized the city in the 3rd century bc and from that time until the Middle Ages it was known as Ptolemaïs. During the pre-Christian era, Akko was an important trading centre and was successively a part of Syria and a colony of Rome.

After the permanent division of the Roman Empire in ad 395, Akko belonged to the Eastern (later Byzantine) Empire. The Arabs seized it in 638 and held it until its capture by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1104. Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, recaptured Akko in 1187, but the town was subsequently captured by the Europeans during the Third Crusade. In 1291, after a long siege, Akko fell to the Saracens. The Ottoman Turks took possession of it in 1517. Napoleon Bonaparte's effort to advance up the Mediterranean coast from his base in Egypt was stopped by the British at Akko in 1799. In 1918 Akko was captured by British troops and was included in the British mandate of Palestine. The town was taken by the Israeli army in the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and incorporated into the state of Israel in 1949. It is now the centre of the Israeli steel industry. The historic centre of Akko was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. Population 44,800 (1999 estimate).