Acre, St JEAN D', or ACCA, the Biblical Accho, is a seaport on the coast of Syria, not far from the base of Mount Carmel, and contains about 10,000 inhabitants. It is 80 miles NNW. of Jerusalem, and 27 S. of Tyre. The harbour is partly sanded up, yet is one of the best on this coast. In 1887 omnibuses were running from Haifa to Acre; and in 1892 a railway was begun from Haifa and Acre to Damaseus. It was named Ptolemais from King Ptolemy Soter of Egypt. Taken by the Crusaders in 1110, it was recovered in 1187 by Sultan Saladin; but retaken in 1191 by Richard I. of England and Philip at a cost of 100,000 men.
The town was now given to the Knights of the Order of St John, who kept it by constant fighting for a hundred years. In 1517 it was captured by the Turks; in 1799 it was besieged by the French for sixty-one days, but was successfully defended by the garrison, aided by a body of English sailors and marines under Sir Sidney Smith. In 1832 it was stormed by Ibrahim Pacha, son of the viceroy of Egypt, and continued in his possession till it was bombarded and taken, in 1840, by a combined English, Austrian, and Turkish fleet.