Acre (/ˈɑːkər, ˈeɪkər/ AH-kər, AY-kər), known locally as Akko (Hebrew: עַכּוֹ, ʻAkō) or Akka (Arabic: عكّا, ʻAkkā), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel.
The city occupies an important location, sitting in a natural harbour at the extremity of Haifa Bay on the coast of the Mediterranean's Levantine Sea.[2] Aside from coastal trading, it was also 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.[3] Continuously inhabited since then, it is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth.[4] 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 an important city during the Crusades, and was the site of several battles. It was the last city held by the Crusaders in the Levant before it was captured in 1291.
In present-day Israel, the population was 49,380 in 2019,[1] made up of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Baháʼís.[5] 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; thirty-two per cent of the city's population is Arab. The mayor is Shimon Lankri, who was re-elected in 2018 with 85% of the vote.
The etymology of the name is unknown, but apparently not Semitic.[6] 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).[6]
Acre seems to be recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs, possibly being the "Akka" in the execration texts from around 1800 BC[7][8] and the "Aak" in the tribute lists of Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC).[citation needed] The Akkadian cuneiform Amarna letters also mention an "Akka" in the mid-14th century BC.[9][10] On its native currency, Acre's name was written ʿK (Phoenician: 𐤏𐤊).[11] It appears in Assyrian[6] and once in Biblical Hebrew.[12] Other transcriptions of these names include Acco, Accho, Akke, and Ocina.[citation needed]
Acre was known to the Greeks as Ákē (Greek: Ἄκη), a homonym for 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.[13] This name was Latinized as Ace. Josephus's histories also transcribed the city into Greek as Akre.