in the middle east

Akko is a small coastal town about a half hour north of Haifa, and 45min south of the Lebanon border. This large peninsula juts out into the Mediterranean, and has been a strategically important harbor town for over 3,500 years. Before the ancient Israelite were ever around, it was an Egyptian port, and in Judges chapter 1 it is mentioned as a place that Israel was never able to get a foothold. It was an important Roman port city until well after Jesus' time. In the mid-600's it came under Arab rule, and only in the 1100's was it captured by the Crusader, by Richard the Lionheart no less. After the crusaders it was under Arab and Muslim rule, though Napolean did once besiege the city. The Arab rule lasted up until the war of 1948 when it became a part of the modern Israeli state. The population, however, is mostly Palestinian. Because port cities were so important in the ancient world, it has had a long series of possessors, and dispossers who become possessors, and so on. However, to come upon such a place today, means that at every turn in this quaint coastal town you can learn all about it's amazing history, just by looking at the buildings. To see a bit of Akko, just Click Here.