Acre ( AH-kər, AY-kər), known in Hebrew as Akko (Hebrew: עַכּוֹ, ʻAkkō, IPA: [ˈako]) and in Arabic as Akka (Arabic: عكّا, ʻAkkā, IPA: [ˈʕak.ka]), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel.
The city occupies a strategic location, sitting in a natural harbour at the extremity of Haifa Bay on the coast of the Mediterranean's Levantine Sea. Aside from coastal trading, it was an important waypoint on the region's coastal road and the road cutting inland along the Jezreel Valley. The first settlement during the Early Bronze Age was abandoned after a few centuries but a large town was established during the Middle Bronze Age. Continuously inhabited since then, it is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth. It has, however, been subject to conquest and destruction several times and survived as little more than a large village for centuries at a time.
Acre was a hugely important city during the Crusades as a maritime foothold on the Mediterranean coast of the southern Levant and was the site of several battles, including the 1189–1191 Siege of Acre and 1291 Siege of Acre. It was the last stronghold of the Crusaders in the Holy Land prior to that final battle in 1291. At the end of Crusader rule, the city was destroyed by the Mamluks, thereafter existing as a modest fishing village until the rule of Daher al-Umar in the 18th century.
In 1947, Acre formed part of Mandatory Palestine and had a population of 13,665, of whom 10,930 were Muslim and 2,490 were Christian, and 105 were Jewish. As a result of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and subsequent 1948 Arab–Israeli war, the population of the town dramatically changed as its Palestinian-Arab population was expelled or forced to flee; it was then resettled by Jewish immigrants. In present-day Israel, the population was 52,885 in 2024, made up of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Baháʼís. In particular, Acre is the holiest city of the Baháʼí Faith in Israel and receives many pilgrims of that faith every year. Acre is one of Israel's mixed cities; 32% of the city's population is Arab. The Old City of Acre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Names
The ultimate etymology of the name is unknown. but appears to be Northwest Semitic. Acre is first recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs in the execration texts c. 1800 BC by the name ʿky, reconstructed by Anson F. Rainey as *ʿ-k-ya > *ʿAkkâ-ya. The Amarna letters also mention an Akka in the mid-14th century BC, and Shmuel Aḥituv gives the Canaanite form as *ʿAkā.
The Akkadian form Akku appears in the 7th century, and in the Hebrew Bible, the name is עַכּוֹ ʻAkkō. This long ā to long ō transition has been interpreted as evidence of the Canaanite shift. It was, however, not universally applied, as several scholars note the final ā form persisted well into the first half of the 1st millennium CE, and a Jewish Palestinian Aramaic form עכה with a final long ā was also extant.
Acre was known to the Greeks as Ákē (Ancient Greek: Ἄκη), a homonym for a Greek word meaning "cure". Greek legend then offered a folk etymology that Hercules had found curative herbs at the site after one of his many fights. This name was Latinized as Ace or Acce (used by Pliny).
Under the Diadochi, the Ptolemaic Kingdom renamed the city Ptolemaïs and the Seleucid Empire called it Antioch. As both names were shared by a great many other towns, they were variously distinguished. The Syrians called it "Antioch in Ptolemais" (Ἀντιόχεια τῆς ἐν Πτολεμαΐδι, in Greek Antiókheia tês en Ptolemaΐdi).
Under Claudius, it was also briefly known as Germanicia in Ptolemais (Γερμανίκεια τῆς ἐν Πτολεμαΐδι, in Greek, Germaníkeia tês en Ptolemaΐdi). As a Roman colony, it was notionally refounded and renamed Colonia Claudii Caesaris Ptolemais or Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis after its imperial sponsor Claudius; it was known as Colonia Ptolemais for short.
Acre's original West Semitic place name is preserved in the Arabic form Akka (عكا), and was revived as the city's official name again following the Muslim conquest of Syria, as one of the cities of Jund al-Urdunn.
It was in the Crusader States' Kingdom of Jerusalem that the 'r' was inserted into its Latin name, becoming Acre. The name Saint-Jean-d'Acre (Modern French: Saint-Jean-d'Acre [sɛ̃ ʒɑ̃ dakʁ]) used for the Knights Hospitaller's headquarters in the city, came to used for the city itself during this period. This name remained quite popular in the Christian world until modern times, often translated into the language being used: Saint John of Acre (in English), San Juan de Acre (in Spanish), Sant Joan d'Acre (in Catalan), San Giovanni d'Acri (in Italian), etc.
History
Acre lies at the northern end of a wide bay with Mount Carmel at the south. It is the best natural roadstead on the southern Phoenician coast and has easy access to the Valley of Jezreel. It was settled early and has always been important for the fleets of kingdoms and empires contesting the area, serving as the main port for the entire southern Levant up to the modern era.
The ancient town was located atop Tel ʿAkkō (Hebrew) or Tell al-Fuḫḫār (Arabic, Tel el-Foukhar, meaning "tell of the clay/sherds"), 1.5 km (0.93 mi) east of the present city and 800 m (2,600 ft) north of the Na'aman River. In antiquity, however, it formed an easily protected peninsula directly beside the former mouth of the Na'aman or Belus.
Early Bronze Age
The earliest discovered settlement dates to around 3000 BC during the Early Bronze Age, but appears to have been abandoned after a few centuries, possibly because of inundation of its surrounding farmland by the Mediterranean.
Middle Bronze Age
Acre was resettled as an urban centre during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA, c. 2000–1550 BC) and has been continuously inhabited since then. Egyptian execration texts record one 18th-century ruler as Tūra-ʿAmmu (Tꜣʿmw). Further to the north was the important MBA site of Tel Kabri dominating the Akko plain.
Late Bronze Age
Acre was listed as "Aak" among the conquests of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III.
In the Amarna Period (c. 1350 BC), there was turmoil in Egypt's Levantine provinces. The Amarna Archive contains letters concerning the ruler(s) of Acco. In one, King Biridiya of Megiddo complains to Amenhotep III or Akhenaten about the king of Acre, whom he accuses of treason for releasing the captured Hapiru king Labaya of Shechem instead of delivering him to Egypt. Excavations of Tel ʿAkkō have shown that this period of Acre involved industrial production of pottery, metal, and other trade goods.
Iron Age
Acre continued as a Phoenician city and was referenced as a Phoenician city by the Assyrians. Josephus, however, claimed it as a province of the Kingdom of Israel under Solomon.
Around 725 BC, Acre joined Sidon and Tyre in a revolt against the Neo-Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser V. There is a clear destruction layer in the ruins, probably dating to the 7th century BC.
Classical Age
Persian period
Acre served as a major port of the Persian Empire, with Strabo noting its importance in campaigns against the Egyptians. According to Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, Cambyses II attacked Egypt after massing a huge army on the plains near the city of Acre. The Persians expanded the town westward and probably improved its harbor and defenses. In December 2018, archaeologists digging at the site of Tell Keisan in Acre unearthed the remains of a Persian military outpost that might have played a role in the successful 525 BC Achaemenid invasion of Egypt. The city's industrial production continued into the late Persian era, with particularly expanded iron works.
Hellenistic period
The Persian-period fortifications at Tell Keisan were later heavily damaged during Alexander's fourth-century BC campaign to drive the Achaemenids out of the Levant.
After Alexander's death, his main generals divided his empire among themselves. At first, the Egyptian Ptolemies held the land around Acre. Ptolemy II renamed the city Ptolemais in his own and his father's honour in the 260s BC.
Antiochus III conquered the town for the Syrian Seleucids in 200 BC. In the late 170s or early 160s BC, Antiochus IV founded a Greek colony in the town, which he named Antioch after himself.
About 165 BC Judas Maccabeus defeated the Seleucids in several battles in Galilee, and drove them into Ptolemais. About 153 BC Alexander Balas, son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, contesting the Seleucid crown with Demetrius, seized the city, which opened its gates to him. Demetrius offered many bribes to the Maccabees to obtain Jewish support against his rival, including the revenues of Ptolemais for the benefit of the Temple in Jerusalem, but in vain. Jonathan Apphus threw in his lot with Alexander; Alexander and Demetrius met in battle and the latter was killed. In 150 BC Alexander received Jonathan with great honour in Ptolemais. Some years later, however, Tryphon, an officer of the Seleucid Empire, who had grown suspicious of the Maccabees, enticed Jonathan into Ptolemais and there treacherously took him prisoner.
The city was captured by Alexander Jannaeus (ruled c. 103–76 BC), Tigranes the Great (r. 95–55 BC), and Cleopatra (r. 51–30 BC). Here Herod the Great (r. 37–4 BC) built a gymnasium.
Roman colony
Around 37 BC, the Romans conquered the Hellenized Phoenician port-city called Akko. It became a colony in southern Roman Phoenicia, called Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis. Ptolemais stayed Roman for nearly seven centuries until 636 AD, when it was conquered by the Muslim Arabs. Under Augustus, a gymnasium was built in the city. In 4 BC, the Roman proconsul Publius Quinctilius Varus assembled his army there in order to suppress the revolts that broke out in the region following the death of Herod the Great.
The Romans built a breakwater and expanded the harbor at the present location of the harbor....In the Roman/Byzantine period, Acre-Ptolemais was an important port city. It minted its own coins, and its harbor was one of the main gates to the land. Through this port the Roman Legions came by ship to crush the Jewish revolt in 67AD. It also served was used as connections to the other ports (for example, Caesarea and Jaffa)....The port of Acre (Ptolemais) was a station on Paul's naval travel, as described in Acts of the Gospels (21, 6-7): "And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again. And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day".
During the rule of the emperor Claudius there was a building drive in Ptolemais and veterans of the legions settled here. The city was one of four colonies (with Berytus, Aelia Capitolina and Caesarea Maritima) created in the ancient Levant by Roman emperors for Roman veterans. During the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), Acre functioned as a staging point for both Cestius's and Vespasian's campaigns to suppress the revolt in Judaea.
The city was a center of Romanization in the region, but most of the population was made of local Phoenicians and Jews: as a consequence after the Hadrian times the descendants of the initial Roman colonists no longer spoke Latin and had become fully assimilated in less than two centuries (however the local society's customs were Roman). An important Roman colony (colonia) was established at the city that greatly increased the control of the region by the Romans over the next century with Roman colonists translated there from Italy. The Romans enlarged the port and the city grew to more than 20,000 inhabitants in the second century under emperor Hadrian. Ptolemais greatly flourished for two more centuries.
Byzantine period
After the permanent division of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, Ptolemais was administered by the successor state, the Byzantine Empire. The city started to lose importance and in the seventh century was reduced to a small settlement of less than one thousand inhabitants.
Early Islamic period
Following the defeat of the Byzantine army of Heraclius by the Rashidun army of Khalid ibn al-Walid in the Battle of Yarmouk, and the capitulation of the Christian city of Jerusalem to the Caliph Umar, Acre came under the rule of the Rashidun Caliphate beginning in 638. According to the early Muslim chronicler al-Baladhuri, the actual conquest of Acre was led by Shurahbil ibn Hasana, and it likely surrendered without resistance. The Arab conquest brought a revival to the town of Acre, and it served as the main port of Palestine through the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates that followed, and through Crusader rule into the 13th century.
The first Umayyad caliph, Muawiyah I (r. 661–680), regarded the coastal towns of the Levant as strategically important. Thus, he strengthened Acre's fortifications and settled Persians from other parts of Muslim Syria to inhabit the city. From Acre, which became one of the region's most important dockyards along with Tyre, Mu'awiyah launched an attack against Byzantine-held Cyprus. The Byzantines assaulted the coastal cities in 669, prompting Mu'awiyah to assemble and send shipbuilders and carpenters to Acre.
The 9th-century historian Ahmad Ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri in his book Kitab Futuh al-Buldan, notes that both Akka and Sur (Tyre) were rebuilt by 'Abd al-Malik ibn-Marwan (r. 685-705) after having "fallen into ruins", presumably as a result of the Byzantine assaults. He also notes that when Syrian sheikhs came to reside in Akka and Sur and other cities along the coast of Syria, there were Arab troops and Greeks already there, who over time were joined by people from other regions too.