Mr. Ridge's class Blog from Grampa Al

Anyone want nuts?

Famous mosque of Jezzar Pasha

Whose car is this?

   Do you have a cat?  There are a lot of cats in Acre, which the Arabs call "Acca," and the Israelis call "Acco."  The city must be confused!  If it could speak, what would it say its name is?

The old city from the sea

Looking into the old city

   Acre is a very old city.  Back in the twelfth century, Crusaders England,  France and Germany came here to capture the city .        Crusaders were knights - fighters - who believed that if they went to "the holy land," the land where Christ was born and crucified, and got it back from the Arab Muslims who controlled it, they would go to heaven.  Of course it was also a "holy land" for Muslims, as it was for Jews.  The first Crusaders captured Acre, then the Arabs recaptured it and then the next Crusaders captured it, and eventually, in the sixteenth century, the Ottoman fighters - the Ottomans were Turks, the people of what is today Turkey - captured Acre and the rest of this area, including Jerusalem.  And on it goes.  This is an area that has been alive in history for over 2000 years!  The old city of Acre, where I am staying with friends, is over 350 years old.  Here are some pictures of Acre from the sea and from inside the old city.  There's a new city, too, outside the walls that are 350 years old, and it's not so different from cities you know, except they speak Hebrew and Arabic and a little English.

A narrow street

   Imagine, some of the buildings that have apartments like the one I'm staying in are over 300 years old.  Others are 200 years old.  When they were built, there wasn't plumbing, but now there is.  There weren't electricity, but now there is.  There wasn't television or computers or cars.  You wouldn't want to have a big car in old Acre.  It wouldn't be able to squeeze through some of the streets!

Want some fish?

    There are also markets, like there are in old Jerusalem.  Do you remember my showing some of those pictures in my blogs from Jerusalem?  Here they have old markets, too.  You wander through them looking for whatever you want or need: a pot for cooking?  a new scarf?  maybe some pomegranate juice or orange juice or some nuts mixed with honey or an Arabic sweet - have you ever tasted baclava?  Maybe you're shopping for dinner and need a chicken and some rice and some vegetables.  All these you can find in the markets of the old city.  This is the way people shopped before supermarkets!

Inside the Jezzar Pasha Mosque
There is a famous old mosque in the Acre, the old city.  A mosque is the place where Muslims go to worship, like a church for Christians and a temple for Jews.  This mosque is called the Jezzar Pasha Mosque, named after Jezzar Pasha, a famous Muslim leader in the city.  It has a tall minaret, the tower next to a mosque from the top of which a muezzin calls people to prayer, five times a day.  The best muezzins have good voices and sound like singers when they call people to prayer.  Now, many mosques use a recording and loud speakers for the call to prayer instead of having a person climb to the top of the minaret five times a day for the call to prayer.
Okay, everybody, that's today's blog.  I have to get ready for the big party.  I'll do one or two more blogs for the class before I come back.  I'll see you sometime soon after I get back to ask if you have any questions.  I hope then to know the name of a school and teacher whose class wants to exchange messages with you on the internet.  I've asked a teacher I know to try to find a fifth grade!