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January 12, 2000
I came to Acre, now known as Akko, in Israel, to explore the best part of this city--the underground Crusader fortress. I spent the day wandering the great halls and the eerie tunnels and caverns.
The Crusaders, European knights who battled the Muslims in charge of the Holy Land, built this castle after they took the city from the Muslims. In the Middle Ages, Europeans came to this area to fight the Muslims. These religious wars were called the Crusades, in which the Europeans fought to claim the land for Jesus, and the Muslims fought for their God, Allah. In those days, the castle was heavily guarded by knights. We just walked right down into the darkness of the crusader fortress.
Even the Crusaders had to use the toilet. This row of latrines emptied into a drainage system that ran out to the sea. "Hey, check this out!" A set of stairs went down even further into the ground. These tunnels went under the city, taking water and waste out to the sea. I bet they also made good escape routes and an excellent way to sneak into the city. Now this is adventure! This is the REAL underground stuff! We wandered through the long tunnels, lit by a few light bulbs along the way. "Wow, if there were a huge wave right now, we'd all drown in here," I said. They told me to shut up. Walking through the underground tunnels was spooky-and a lot of fun. How would you like to do it? Abeja p.s. - Please e-mail me at ...abejahummel@bigfoot.com Home | Search | Teacher Zone | Odyssey Info |
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