'Akko

'Akko

 or Acre

Seaport town (pop., 2004 est.: 45,600), northwestern Israel. First mentioned in an Egyptian text from the 19th century BC, it was long a Canaanite and Phoenician city. After its conquest by Alexander the Great (336 BC), it was a Greek polity (called Philadelphus), and for several centuries it was part of the Roman Republic and Empire. The city was being ruled by the Turkish Seljuq dynasty when the Crusaders captured it in 1104 and renamed it St. Jean d'Acre. It was the last capital of the Crusades, falling in 1291. Except for brief intervals, it was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from 1516 until British forces took it in 1918. It was part of Palestine under the British mandate and became part of Israel in 1948, when most of its Arab inhabitants fled. Notable structures include the Great Mosque and the Crypt of St. John. It is the burial place of Baha' Ullah, the founder of the Baha'i faith.