Acre, Israel

Acre (/ˈɑːkər, ˈeɪkər/ 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 Zahir 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 53,422 in 2023, 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.

The etymology of the name is unknown. A folk etymology in Hebrew is that, when the ocean was created, it expanded until it reached Acre and then stopped, giving the city its name (in Hebrew, ad koh means "up to here" and no further).

Acre seems to be recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs, probably being the ʿKY in the execration texts from around 1800 BC. The Akkadian cuneiform Amarna letters also mention an "Akka" in the mid-14th century BC. 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. Josephus's histories also transcribed the city into Greek as Akre.

The city appears in the Babylonian Talmud with the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic name תלבוש‎ Talbush of uncertain etymology.

Under the Diadochi, the Ptolemaic Kingdom renamed the city Ptolemaïs and the Seleucid Empire 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, Antiókheia tês en Ptolemaΐdi).