Napoleon
Napoleon’s secrets revealed in Acre
17
Sunday
MAR 2013
SIZE DOESN’T MATTER
By Michel Kahn
In the eastern part of Acre next to the Western Galilee College, you find the smallest French military graveyard in Israel, tombs all shaped and sized slightly different one from the other. The commemoration plate at the entrance, placed by the French Embassy, claims you’re entering Caffareli’s cemetery. Historians agree almost in unison that on this spot
Napoleon settled his headquarters on April 1799, at a distance of 1.5 km from the city walls, far enough to be out of shooting range of both the Ottoman and British Artillery.
But when you look at those graves, there is nothing really to indicate that they’re French.
Why? Was it so difficult for Napoleon to leave any inscription? A cross? Or some other sign on those tombstones? Didn’t he want us to know that his brave soldiers are buried here?
Maybe he had something to hide from us? It gets even more confusing when you compare those tombstones to the ones in the nearby Muslim cemeteries. Their architectural similarity is more than remarkable. Are we dealing here with Muslim graves? When Islam experts furthermore conclude that they all point southwards, in the direction of Mecca, it’s clear that the nail is knocked on those who pretend that we have a Napoleonic cemetery on this spot.
Is this an immense fiasco of modern excavation?
In the late 1960s, Acre was still a developing town where Muslims, Christians and Jews lives together side by side till today. The Israeli government decided to promote development in this area by building up an academic institution, the Western Galilee College. Mr. Bernard
Dichter, head of town planning in the city, inspected the location and discovered those abandoned graves. Since the law of antiquities is applicable only for artifacts aged before the 17th century, the authorization of Israel’s Antiquities Authority was not opposed to evacuating them.
When
17
Sunday
MAR 2013
SIZE DOESN’T MATTER
By Michel Kahn
In the eastern part of Acre next to the Western Galilee College, you find the smallest French military graveyard in Israel, tombs all shaped and sized slightly different one from the other. The commemoration plate at the entrance, placed by the French Embassy, claims you’re entering Caffareli’s cemetery. Historians agree almost in unison that on this spot
Napoleon settled his headquarters on April 1799, at a distance of 1.5 km from the city walls, far enough to be out of shooting range of both the Ottoman and British Artillery.
But when you look at those graves, there is nothing really to indicate that they’re French.
Why? Was it so difficult for Napoleon to leave any inscription? A cross? Or some other sign on those tombstones? Didn’t he want us to know that his brave soldiers are buried here?
Maybe he had something to hide from us? It gets even more confusing when you compare those tombstones to the ones in the nearby Muslim cemeteries. Their architectural similarity is more than remarkable. Are we dealing here with Muslim graves? When Islam experts furthermore conclude that they all point southwards, in the direction of Mecca, it’s clear that the nail is knocked on those who pretend that we have a Napoleonic cemetery on this spot.
Is this an immense fiasco of modern excavation?
In the late 1960s, Acre was still a developing town where Muslims, Christians and Jews lives together side by side till today. The Israeli government decided to promote development in this area by building up an academic institution, the Western Galilee College. Mr. Bernard
Dichter, head of town planning in the city, inspected the location and discovered those abandoned graves. Since the law of antiquities is applicable only for artifacts aged before the 17th century, the authorization of Israel’s Antiquities Authority was not opposed to evacuating them.
When