With a history that dates back to 1504 BCE when Pharoah Thutmose III ruled this city, Acre, like most of the surrounding region is a culmination of Crusader, Roman and Ottoman dynasties.

In 332 BCE, Alexander the Great successfully conquered the city, naming it "Acre." When the Malmuks invaded and destroyed Acre in the late 1200s, it was reduced to a barren land that remained uninhabited for centuries. The city came back to life when it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The British included it as part of the mandate after defeating its Turkish rulers in 1918.

During this period, the city’s fortress was used as a prison for holding members of Irgun – the Jewish underground movement that eventually transformed into the Israeli military.

POST-1948

Situated in the northern-Galilee region, Acre (Akka in Arabic; Akko in Hebrew) remained a predominantly Muslim-dominated city, especially during the four centuries of Turkish rule when a majority of inhabitants were Arab Palestinians.

However, the demography of the city transformed overnight with 1948 war, when many of the cityzzz*zs inhabitants were forced out or fled. Had the UN partition plan of 1947 come to fruition, Acre would have become part of an independent Arab state for Palestinians.

The old city of Acre with its archeological remnants of the Roman and Turkish periods have become a UNESCO world heritage site. Like its sister city Haifa, Acre is home to holy places of the Bahai religion.