Peter & Vinci
- Mar 19, 2020
- 7 min read

Part 7 : Akko

Updated: Apr 23, 2020

After a stopover in Magdala, we continued on to Akko. Or Akka. Or Acre. Or Acca. Or Ptolemais, depending on who you ask. Akko is an ancient port city on the northern Mediterranean coast, just underneath the border with Lebanon. It has a population of around 50,000 with a large numbers of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Baha'is and Druze. Our visit, concentrated on the old city which is almost completely populated by Arabs.

The old city has been continuously inhabited since around 2000BC, however much of it has been rebuilt and nearly all of what is seen today is no older than the 16th century AD. Despite this, most of the streets are in the same layout as they were over a thousand years ago. The city of Akko is briefly mentioned twice in the Bible under it's name current name, being one of the places the Israelites failed to hold (Judges 1:31) and under it's historical name of Ptolemais, during Paul's final journey to Jerusalem (Acts 21:7). The rest of its history is quite extensive being under the rule of the Romans, Byzantines, Muslims, Crusaders, Mamluks and Ottomans - far too much for me to bring up here. In March - May of 1799, Napoleon launched his offensive on the city and ultimately failed. He later lamented, and it is widely accepted, that if he had succeeded, he would have controlled most of the known world.

We arrived by car and I was pre-warned that the car parking was particularly difficult. In the old city there is only one free public car park on the eastern side called the 'Lighthouse car park' and it has around 200 car park spaces. When we arrived around midday, there was well over 1,000 cars, many double or triple parked and a continuous stream of traffic circling like vultures in the hope of finding a spot. There is also a number of signs indicating parking is paid, however we can assure people that the whole area is currently free 24/7. A number of elderly men try direct cars to park in certain places and then require a tip, which according to the owner of our hotel, goes towards funding a drug habit. Breaking into cars is not common but does occur now and again with opportunistic thieves roaming around.

During rough seas, most of the car park spaces are subject to salt water spray and in the morning the next day, we watched in amazement as the waves would crash over the walls and onto the cars. It is not uncommon to find modern cars almost completely rusted out. Indeed, when we left the next day, the brakes felt like they were made out of concrete for the next few kilometers - this despite our spot being at least 50 meters away from the edge.

The streets in the old city are very narrow with 2-3 storey buildings on either side. They don't appear to follow any particular order and it would be quite easy to get lost here without a map. The bulk of the buildings are made from the same stone blocks and feature blue windows and doors, giving a very unique feel to the city unlike any other place we visited in Israel. Vinci was quite unsettled by some of the rowdy kids firing cap guns at her, but I gallantly stood between her and the perpetrators and my epic Kung Fu 'Crouching Back Ache Hidden Suitcase' stance quickly saw them on their way (laughing).

Akko is not just a labyrinth of charming streets, but also has a rather large art community and evidence of their works can be seen all over the city. Art varies greatly from old cast iron signs, to rustic shelves with pot plants made out of shoes or children's dolls all the way to decorated toilets mounted to the sides of houses.

We had arrived at our hotel a little too early for checking in, but the friendly owner stored our luggage and gave us a map of the city along with some helpful hints and tips and we headed off to the market.

There are four markets within the old city, the main one simply referred to as 'the Souq'. The other ones (Turkish, White & covered markets) are all located within close proximity of each other at the northern end of the Souq, although most of the small shops within appeared to be shut when we walked past. We began from the south end of the Souq and headed north. The market is a fascinating place with most imaginable commodities for sale; fish, spices, toys, hardware, pharmaceuticals - even a place dedicated to selling rubber ducks.

Most of the local vendors don't like being photographed and vigorously defend their stalls, which is odd being that the bulk of the trade is pitched at tourists. Our Go-Pro came in particularly handy for recording this place. Despite the buzz of the market, nothing is labelled with prices and if you're not local, things are stupidly expensive unless you are in the mood to haggle. We decided to hold off on our souvenir shopping until towards the end of the trip to save having to carry things around the next couple of weeks anyway, so had no need or desire to start the negotiating process.

Akko, like many parts of Israel has a massive amount of cats. They breed very fast and the population goes almost completely unchecked. They can be found everywhere; on any given street, on or underneath parked cars, rubbish bins, boxes (of course), in the marketplaces, etc. Only a very small handful of them are in good condition with a trimmed ear (quick ID for a sterile animal). For Vinci, this was pure heaven and her kind gesture of offering some of my snacks to one of these fur balls, suddenly turned us into the Pied Piper.

The old city of Akko juts out of the coast and is surrounded by the sea on three sides (32°55'07.58"N 35°04'04.72"E). The Harbour is usually a hive of activity, although the rough seas today saw many boats still moored up. Akko is served by a regular ferry service to Haifa and there are a number of tour boats where you can enjoy a leisurely cruise around the harbour, although the operators do like to crank up their Arabic folk music once under way.

The boat rides give another perspective of some of the ruins now surrounded by the sea. The remains from some towers or walls built during the times of the Crusaders can be seen inside the harbour, the two most prominent ruins being the Tower of the Flies and a section of the foundations of the Templar Crusader Fortress.

An alternative to these rather relaxed sight seeing cruises are power boats which are great for those who enjoy getting airborne, being hammered by waves or being thrown around at violent force at excessive speeds (as I do). I lost my hat during the ordeal, but Vinci, ever the sensible one, decided to remain on dry ground and therefore retained all of her clothing.

As I was now completely drenched in sea water and beginning to suffer the consequences of severe inner thigh chafing and mild hypothermia, we headed off to visit one of the most popular sights in Akko - the Templar tunnels. These tunnels were built by the Knights Templar starting from around 1200AD and was a direct link underneath the city connecting the fortress to the harbour. The tunnels extend for almost the entire width of the old city, some 150 meters. They lay undiscovered until a plumber accidentally came across them in 1994. The entire tunnel system has only been open to the public since 2007. Entrance fees are quite pricey and it is fairly dark, however once inside, the sheer size of the tunnels and architecture used is very impressive. Despite being one of the most visited locations in Akko, we were one of the only visitors at the time.

There are supposedly eleven must-see sights in Akko, most of them along the northern perimeter of the city, however time was running out before most of these closed and we had to decide which of the remaining locations we would visit. As my stamina was rapidly depleting after walking constantly all day, in perhaps not the most comfortable shoes, we decided to visit the Al-Basha Turkish bath house as it seemed potentially interesting and would save us almost three more gruelling kilometres of walking than if we were to attempt eastern Wall promenade and gardens. After locating the bath house we were given a headset in our preferred language and told to wait a few moment for the final self guided tour of the day. A number of other tourists joined us and we all donned our headsets and sat inside the main atrium. The tour is a video show, projected onto the walls of the various rooms, but rather than being educational, was a somewhat bizarre story of the current owner attempting to explain the family history of the bath house whilst bickering with his dead relatives. The strong accents left Vinci completely dumbfounded from the get-go and I was left with very little to go by to piece together any worthwhile information for her afterwards.

By the time we were finished here at around 4pm, the other attractions were already closing so we headed back to the hotel to officially check in and then went off for dinner in one of the overpriced restaurants. Sadly the bill didn't really reflect the quality of the food, but we both left the venue full all the same.

Our hotel was at the Arabesque Arts Akko boutique hotel, hidden down one of the streets right in the centre of the old city. Boutique hotels are beginning to become very popular in Israel and they typically have four or five rooms, each having a unique character about it. Our room was particularly beautiful with gorgeous stone arch walls and ceilings with furniture embedded into the recesses, as well as a beautiful little balcony. Everything was extremely comfortable and the breakfast the next morning was one of the best we would have during our entire stay in Israel.

We left Akko the next morning, with a number of sights unseen. If we include Akko in a future visit to Israel, we will certainly try and visit these, however our bucket list for next time already has over 300 places, so this seems unlikely.

"We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day." - Acts 21:7

Further pictures of Akko are shown below for your viewing pleasure.