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Acco (Acre)

Posted Wednesday, March 28, 2007 by Charlie Trimm

Our journey now takes us north to the Plain of Acco. Acco is spelled in a wide variety of ways, including Acre and Akko. In NT times it was called Ptolemais when Paul came through the town. The Plain of Acco is north of Mt. Carmel and the Jezreel Valley and provides a fairly direct link between Israel and Phoenicia. For this reason, the plain of Acco was usually not under Israelite control, except for the high points of Israelite history, such as the time under Solomon. Not much is recorded as happening here, although Judges 1:31 does note that Asher did not take the city. The rather strange story of the land of Cabul occurs here as well, where Solomon gives 20 cities to Tyre, but they do not like them. Perhaps they were not good enough? We are not sure.

Acco played a greater role in postbiblical history. It was the major port of the Crusaders and one of the last places that the Crusaders were able to hold on to. Most of the ruins today are from  Crusader times. Napolean was defeated when he tried to take Acco, sending him in flight back to Egypt. Today you can see the place where Napolean tried to attack the city. Acco is most famous today as a place where secular Jews go to hang out on the Sabbath for a beautiful day. 

As  you can see by the map, Acco is very well fortified and occupies a great position. One can understand why battles against it were so deadly and long.  

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This is an inn from the Middle Ages.  

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 These are some of the old Crusader walls. 

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