“Napoleon’s Hill” and the 1799 Siege of Acre/Akko, Israel

Napoleon’s famous 1799 defeat at the walls of Ottoman Acre marked a turning point in the French campaign to control the Middle East, an event that lives on in the memory of the citizens of modern Akko. Visitors to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Acre, Israel, can follow a walking route exploring several locations that played a key role in Bonaparte’s 1799 siege of the city. In this contribution, we recreate Napoleon’s unsuccessful siege of Acre to examine the role of Tel Akko (“Napoleon’s Hill”) in his defeat. Based on maps dating to the period of the 1799 siege and contemporary eyewitness accounts, we examine the claim that there is no evidence Napoleon ever set foot on Tel Akko. We also employ Esri StoryMaps to present an in-depth investigation and contextualization of Bonaparte’s defeat by British and Ottoman forces, an event which Napoleon, on his deathbed, lamented as the obstacle that prevented his dream of recreating Alexander the Great’s empire.