Acre, a fabulous port city with a natural bay was first mentioned in the al-Amarna tablets of the 14th-century BCE. To the Greeks, Acre was Aka; to the Egyptians, Ptolemais; and to the Romans, Colonia Claudia Felix. The Arabs, like the Canaanites and Greeks, called it Akkah, while the Crusaders mimed it Saint Jean d'Acre. Although Acre was to be a city in the Arab state of Palestine under the 1947 UN partition plan, the Israelis seized it and named it Akko.     

      Since earliest times it has been a pivotal seaport, situated on the sea at the mouth of the river Na'aman, on two important trade routes: the costal highway and the road leading from the Mediterranean Sea to Syria and modem Jordan. A Canaanite city specializing in glass manufacturing and royal purple dye, it was much coveted by the Egyptians, who repeatedly launched expeditions to conquer the city (Thutmose III, 1504-1450 BCE; Seti I, 1291-1271 BCE; and Ramses II, 1275 BCE, all succeeded). On its shores, the Murex shells from which the Canaanites first extracted the color purple can still be found.

      Ugarit and Akkadian documents attest to the city's importance during the Canaanite era, though it is mentioned just once in the Old Testament. (Judges 1:31 reads, "Asher did not drive out the
inhabitants of Acco....")

Source: Palestine A Guide by Mariam Shahin