Akko, Israel















 I took 7:00 am train from Haifa to Akko, and my 1st 30-min train ride in Israel was easy. I ran into a civil servant who walked half way with me to the old city, instead of wasting more time waiting and riding local buses. It was cool to walk in the early morning, yet the museums and markets weren’t open yet. I peeped into Great Mosque of Jezzar Pasha and a few other places before their open hours. 

I walked in the small alleyways and on the castle wall wall, including many sections bordering the sea. In 1750, Daher El-Omar, the ruler of Acre, utilized the remnants of the Crusader walls as a foundation for his walls. Two gates were set in the wall, the "land gate" in the eastern wall, and the "sea gate" in the southern wall. I also see Acre lighthouse built on the south-western corner of the walls. It reminded me of Marrakech in Morocco. 

Akko possesses a long history of various cultures: Canaanites, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders and Arabs. Akko is a holy city in the Bahá'í Faith and in spite of its small size has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: (1) the Old City of Acre; and (2) the Baha’i garden of Acre, which is a part of the Baha’i Holy Places in Haifa. It was a shame that this garden only opens to Baha’i pilgrims. “Baháʼu'lláh was the founder of the Baháʼí Faith. He was born to an aristocratic family in Persia, and was exiled due to his adherence to the messianic Bábí Faith. In 1863, in Iraq, he first announced his claim to a revelation from God, and spent the rest of his life in further imprisonment in the Ottoman Empire. Bahá'ís accept the divine nature of the missions of Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, the Buddha, Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad.”

Although I walked a lot in Haifa to see the gardens here, and then walked over 2 miles on narrow shoulders to get to Akko Gardens, I couldn’t get in : ( A young Israeli couple was as frustrated as me yet kindly gave me a ride back to the old city. I checked out the local market which was rather small, and the Turkish Bazaar was permanent closed.











I walked by Tunisian synagogue which was closed.  I also walked by a local graveyard. My last stop was Tel Akko (or Tel Napoleon), a Bronze Age-Hellenistic period archaeological site. I had the whole place to myself, no signage, but views over the bay, to the south, and the hills of the Lebanon border, to the north.

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