Middle East - Anthony Ham [243]
From here, a series of winding passages will take you to a Turkish Baazar. Turn right from here to reach the Hammam al-Pasha (Turkish Bath), housed in the 1780 bathhouse built by Al-Jazzar, which remained in use until the 1940s. The hammam now contains a 30-minute multi-media show (adult/child 25/21NIS; 8.30am-5pm Sun-Thu, 8.30am-2pm Fri) called ‘Balan, The Bath Attendant’. From the hammam walk back towards the Citadel to the Okashi Art Museum (adult/child 10/7NIS; 8.30am-5pm Sun-Thu, 8.30am-2pm Fri), an art gallery that’s dedicated to one of Old Akko’s few Jewish residents, Avshalom Okashi (1916–80).
From the Citadel, follow the alley south into the souq, the Old City’s main, workaday marketplace. Beyond the souq lies the Khan al-Umdan (Inn of the Pillars), once a grand khan (caravanserai or inn) that served camel trains carrying grain from the hinterlands, and whose courtyard now often hosts impromptu football games. En route to the harbour, don’t miss the amazing Templar Crusader Tunnel (adult/child 10/7NIS; 8.30am-5pm Sun-Thu, 8.30am-4pm Fri), an underground passageway that connected the port to a Templar palace.
NEW AKKO
The complementary attraction to Haifa’s Baha’i Gardens (Click here), are Akko’s very own Baha’i Gardens (admission free; 9am-4pm), around 3km north of Akko’s town centre. The gardens contain the Mansion of Bahji, where the founder of the Baha’i faith, Mizra Hussein Ali (Baha’u’llah) lived until his death in 1892. He is buried in the adjacent shrine ( 9am-noon Fri-Mon), considered the holiest place on the planet for the Baha’i. Take a 10-minute ride on bus 271 from the town centre, and alight when you see the gardens’ main gate on the right. Only Baha’i can use the main gate: use the entrance about 500m north up the side road.
Another worthwhile site to visit just outside New Akko is the Ghetto Fighters’ Museum ( 995 8052; www.gfh.org.il; adult/child 20/18NIS; 9am-4pm Sun-Thu), which commemorates the ghetto uprisings, Jewish resistance and Allied assistance during the Nazi Holocaust. Despite the depressing theme, it presents a hopeful picture of this tragic period. Your ticket is also good for Yad Layeled ( 9am-4pm Sun-Thu, 10am-5pm Sat) a moving museum dedicated to children of the Holocaust, located in an adjacent circular structure. Both museums are situated in Kibbutz Lohamei HaGheta’ot, established in 1949 by former resistance fighters from the ghettos of Germany, Lithuania and Poland. To get here, take bus 270 or 271 north to Nahariya and ask your driver to drop you at the kibbutz.
Sleeping
Walied’s Akko Gate Hostel ( 991 0410; fax 981 5530; Salah ad-Din St; dm 30NIS, s/d 200/220NIS, s/d without bathroom 120/140NIS; ) In this split personality guesthouse, you’ve a choice of decent street-side rooms with attached bathrooms, or stuffy nonattached rooms that overlook a grubby yard filled with discarded metal bunk beds. Owner Walied can arrange trips to the Golan Heights (200NIS) when there is enough demand. Call for a free pick up from the station.
Akkotel ( 987 7100, 981 0626; Salah ad-Din St; d US$165-250) This gorgeous place, recently opened by an Arab Catholic local with the dream of rejuvenating Old Akko, offers 16 boutique hotel rooms – the suites are particularly opulent – each individually designed and decorated, with 18th-century stone walls built by Al-Jazzar himself. Once an Ottoman guard HQ, and later a boys’ school and magistrates court, it’s well worth splashing out to sleep like a pasha in a little bit of Akko history.
Eating