ACRE* 
233 
nal, of the College of the Knights, the Palace and Chapel of the 
Grand Master, and often or twelve other churches; but they 
are now so intermingled with other buildings, and in such an ut¬ 
ter state of subversion, that it is very difficult to afford any sa¬ 
tisfactory description. % Many superb remains were observed 
by us in the pacha’s palace, in the khan, the mosque, the pub¬ 
lic bath, the fountains, and other works of the town; consist¬ 
ing of fragments of antique marble, the shafts and capitals of 
granite and marble pillars, masses of the verd antique breccia, 
of ancient serpentine, and of the syenite and trap of Egypt & 
In the garden of Djezzar’s palace, leading to his summer apart¬ 
ment, we saw some pillars of yellow variegated marble, of extra¬ 
ordinary beauty; but these he informed us he had procured 
from the ruins of Caesarea, upon the coast between Acre and 
Jaffa,f together with almost all the marble used in the decora¬ 
tions of his very sumptuous mosque. A beautiful fountain of 
white marble, close to the entrance of bis palace, has also been 
constructed with materials from those ruins. 
We were, as usual, diligent in our inquiries, among the sil¬ 
versmiths of Acre, for medals and antique gems; but could 
neither obtain nor hear of any. The most ancient name of the 
city, AKII, has been observed upon small bronze medals found 
in this country, but they are extremely rare; and as it was an¬ 
nexed to the government of Sidon, in the earliest periods of its 
history, perhaps no silver coinage of Ace ever existed. Even 
the bronze medals are not found in our English cabinets. The 
Skionian medals, although better known, are not common. 
There is one, of matchless beauty and perfection, in the Im¬ 
perial Collection at Paris. Those of Ftolemais have only 
been observed in bronze : they exhibit the bearded head of 
Jupiter crowned with laurels, and, for reverse, a figure of Ce¬ 
res, with the legend 
n T O A E M A I 2 I E P A 2 K A I A 2 Y A O T 
* T he author of the Voyage de la Terre Sainte enters into some detail concerning 
every one of these ruins. According to him, three of the churches were originally 
dedicated to St. Saba, St. Thomas, and St. Nicholas : therp was also another church, 
dedicated to St. John. (See Voy. de la T. S. p 597.) In the magnificent edition of 
the account of the Holy Land by Christian. Adrichomius , printed at Cologne in 1628, 
■y e have the following enumeration of public edifices in Acre, when the city was an 
(episcopal see, under the archbishop of Tyre. “ Jnsignehie fait templum S. Cruets , el 
altcrwn S. Sobbae, atque hospitaledominonm Teutonicorum. Nec non munitissima castra 
et turres , inter quas ilia , quam maiedictam appellant , excellebat. JEdts turn publicae turn 
privatae , magnificat atque pulcherrimae .” Acfrichoxmi Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, p. 6. 
Colon. 1628- 
t The ruins of Caesarea are about fifteen or twenty miles to the south of the'point 
of the promontory of Mount Carmel. 
x 2 
