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Acre, Akko, Acco
Acre (or Akko), Israel, port 10 mi (16 km) from Haifa across the Bay of Acre. Population was 45,300 in 1994. The principal manufacturing business in Acre is iron and steel, chemicals, and textiles. Greek legend says
that Hercules was once seriously wounded here. He
found the herbs to cure his wounds, in this port city and named it Aka for cure. Greeks settled here in the third century BC. The name of this 4,000-year-old city appears is
spelled many different ways. Officially, it is usually spelled as Acre (in English).
However, in Hebrew, the city’s name is pronounced Akko. Acre was incorporated into the empire of Alexander the
Great after his conquest in 332 B.C. The
Egyptian king Ptolemy II subsequently seized the city.
He renamed the city Ptolemais in the 2nd century B.C. This name stuck until the Muslim conquest in the
7th century A.D. The Arabs conquered the city in 638 A.D. and developed its natural harbor. In 1104 it was captured in the First Crusade and was held by Christians until 1187 when Saladin took it. It was retaken in the Third Crusade in 1191 and was the center of Christianity in the Holy Land for the next century.
Ancient Roman Bazaar Return.......page 2......page 3
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