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435

Then what a lovely sight, Haifa on the hills overlooking the Meditteranean. The bay of Haifa has been compared with that of Naples. On the winding roads up Mount Carmel, where lived Elijah, the prophet, past the Persian Gardens of the Bahais, surrounding the gold roofed shrine of the sect, up to the Megiddo Hotel. The view is famed for its natural beauty - and reminds me of Hong Kong.

Spent the afternoon driving to Acre (pronounced Ako) a mixed Jewish-Arab town, a strong point & port since Phoenician, Greek & Roman times. Richard the lion-hearted landed here with the crusading knights. Seven hundred years later Napoleon was turned back & retreated [[strikethrough]] to [[/strikethrough]] down the coast of Egypt after failing to capture the city. Turkish fortifications & the Mosque El Jazzar give the city a resemblance to Constantinople.

One has only to see these heroic, magnificent stone ramparts to learn why Napoleon failed. The old city is noble in beauty.

- It dates to about 1800 B.C.! Mentioned in the Execration texts. In the Book of Judges 



436

Sun. April 3

Sun. [[strikethrough]] March 31 [[/strikethrough]] 'AKO'
Haifa.    

Ako is given as one of the cities allotted to the Tribe of Asher. Under the Persian reign, 526 BC, Ako was base of operations against Egypt. The population was mixed Arabic, Syriac & Greek, besides French, Italian & Jews. St. Francis began his Eastern Mission in Ako 1219. In 1260 Rabbi Yehiel of Paris entered the city & founded the famous Paris Yeshiva together with Jews of France & England.

It is an amazingly beautiful walled in city - the forms & textures of the stone walls of the ramparts & buildings left one breathless with enchantment.

Went thru the Crusades Crypt of the Knights of St. John, saw the ruins of the Crusades Castle of Montfort, immortalized in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, the El-Jazzar's Mosque, the wonderful Land Gate, the Citadel & the Old City Bazaar. Saw naked young boys batting & playing in the old rock ruins near the sea, at the Cafe Abu Christo - the seagate where Phoenician, Greek & Roman galleys one drew alongside. Now an Oriental Cafe overlooking the blue