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. 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. 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 β Siege of Acre and Siege of Acre.
It was the last stronghold of the Crusaders in the Holy Land prior to that final battle in 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 , Acre formed part of Mandatory Palestine and had a population of 13,, of whom 10, were Muslim and 2, were Christian.
As a result of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and subsequent ArabβIsraeli 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.
The etymology of the name is unknown. Greek legend then offered a folk etymology that Hercules had found curative herbs at the site after one of his many fights.
Josephus 's histories also transcribed the city into Greek as Akre. Acre lies at the northern end of a wide bay with Mount Carmel at the south. In antiquity, however, it formed an easily protected peninsula [ 19 ] directly beside the former mouth of the Na'aman or Belus. The earliest discovered settlement dates to around BC [ 3 ] during the Early Bronze Age, but appears to have been abandoned after a few centuries, possibly because of inundation of its surrounding farmland by the Mediterranean.
