Akko ,Israel,Entrance to the Great Mosque
Acre, Akko is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel and is situated on a low promontory at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country and historically, was regarded as a strategic coastal link to the Levant. Acre is the holiest city of the Bahá'í Faith. Acre came under the rule of the Arab caliphate beginning in 638. Akko served as the main port of Palestine through the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates that followed, and through Crusader rule into the 13th century. It was captured by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1104 in the First Crusade and the Crusaders also made the town their chief port in Palestine. Around 1170 it became the main port of the eastern Mediterranean, and the kingdom of Jerusalem was regarded in the west as enormously wealthy above all because of Acre. It was re-taken by Saladin in 1187, and besieged by Guy of Lusignan reinforced by Pisan naval and ground forces , in August 1189. But it was not captured until July 1191 by Richard I of England, Philip of France, Leopold of Austria with what was left of the German army and the rest of the crusader's army. It then became the capital of the remnant of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1192. In 1229 it was placed under the control of the Knights Hospitaller. The Crusaders called the city "Acre" or "Saint-Jean d'Acre" . It was the final stronghold of the Crusader state, and fell to the Mameluks of the Ayyubid Sultanate in a bloody siege in 1291. Daher El-Omar, the ruler of Acre, utilized the remnants of the Crusader walls as a foundation for his walls. . The walls were reinforced between 1775 and 1799 by Jezzar Pasha and survived Napoleon's siege. Today about two-thirds of Acre's population is Jewish, and Arab citizens of Israel constitute about one-third of the rest.
Size: 4021px × 5416px
Location: Acre (Akko) Israel within the old city
Photo credit: © moris kushelevitch / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: .bahallah, 1st, 1st richard, bahai, baldwin, center, city, crusader, france, galilee, germany, heritage, holy, hospitalers, israel, jazaar, jerusalem, kingdom, leopold, mamelukes, pasha, phillip, saladin, site, templars, unesco, western, world
