Aside from coastal trading, it was an important waypoint on the region's coastal road and the road cutting inland along the Jezreel Valley . The first settlement during the Early Bronze Age was abandoned after a few centuries but a large town was established during the Middle Bronze Age . [3] Continuously inhabited since then, it is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth . [4] It has, however, been subject to conquest and destruction several times and survived as little more than a large village for centuries at a time.
Acre was a hugely important city during the Crusades as a maritime foothold on the Mediterranean coast of the southern Levant and was the site of several battles, including the 1189–1191 Siege of Acre and 1291 Siege of Acre . It was the last stronghold of the Crusaders in the Holy Land prior to that final battle in 1291.