Acre’s Old City is a historic walled port-city designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It has been a place of continuous settlement from the Phoenician period and today, the city contains characteristics of a fortified town dating from the Ottoman 18th and 19th centuries, with typical urban components such as the citadel, mosques, khans and baths. The remains of when the Crusaders inhabited the region, which was between the years 1104 and 1291, remain intact, both above and below today’s street level.
Since the 1990s, large-scale archaeological excavations have been undertaken and efforts are being made to preserve ancient sites. In 2009, renovations were planned for Khan al-Umdan, the “Inn of the Columns,” the largest of several Ottoman inns still standing in Acre. It was built near the port at the end of the 18th century by Jazzar Pasha. Merchants who arrived at the port would unload their wares on the first floor and sleep in lodgings on the second floor. In 1906, a clock tower was added over the main entrance marking the 25th anniversary of the reign of the Turkish sultan, Abdul Hamid II.
See the highlights of Acre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZXQTRUD29g
