Akko Old City

Akko is a rare thing: a living Ottoman-era town sitting almost intact on top of a Crusader one. When the Crusader city fell in 1291 it was largely buried, and the Ottoman town was built over the rubble, which preserved what was underneath. Excavation has opened up the Knights' Halls, a series of enormous vaulted chambers and a refectory built by the Hospitallers, along with a Templar tunnel running from the fortress to the harbour that you walk along a raised boardwalk with water below. Above ground, the walled town is a working port with a fish market, a bazaar, the domed Al-Jazzar mosque, and caravanserais around the old harbour. Its sea walls held off Napoleon in 1799.

What you actually see

• The Knights' Halls - vast Hospitaller vaults and refectory beneath the Ottoman town.
• The Templar tunnel - a walkable underground passage from fortress to harbour.
• Al-Jazzar Mosque - the eighteenth-century Ottoman mosque and its courtyard.
• The harbour and sea walls - fishing boats, ramparts and the seafood restaurants along the quay.

When to go

Spring and autumn for comfortable walking weather. The underground sections stay cool year-round, making them a good midday option in summer. The town is quieter on weekdays.

Honest expectations

The old town is lived in and working, not curated, so it is scruffy in places and the contrast with the polished underground sites is sharp. The combined ticket covers several scattered sites and takes a full day to use properly. Parking outside the walls is limited and the lanes are too narrow to drive.

Nearby

Haifa and the Baha'i gardens are half an hour south; Rosh Hanikra's sea grottoes lie north on the coast.