BBC Travel’s basic geography fail

h/t @jasonlax

On May 13th the BBC website’s ‘Travel’ section published an article by Amanda Ruggeri – editor of the ‘BBC Britain’ website – which was also promoted on the BBC News site.

Titled “The hidden world of the Knights Templar“, the article is described as follows:

“Tucked behind London’s Fleet Street, a patchwork of gardens and graceful buildings tell the story of the most famous knights of the Crusades.”

SONY DSC
Acco – Israel

Unfortunately, that interesting piece is marred by a rather basic geographical inaccuracy:

“By that point, the knights were no longer needed as crusaders. Their military stronghold of Acre, in present-day Syria, had fallen in 1291. The knights were still engaging in smaller-scale raids, but the Crusades had effectively ended – and, for the Church, had not ended well.” [emphasis added]

Acre (Acco), with its beautifully restored Crusader buildings is of course located in northern Israel.

Update, 18/5/16:

BBC Travel has now corrected the inaccuracy.

Before:

Acre in Syria before

After:

correction Acre

 

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