Lebanon Governorates

Lebanon is a country of about ten thousand square kilometres, and its map is built from stripes that run north to south: a narrow coast, the Mount Lebanon range behind it, the Beqaa valley and the Anti-Lebanon range along the Syrian border. The governorate is the tier that tells you which stripe, and which end of it, a place is in, and there are only nine of them.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: Four parts of the country, an unofficial cut
In the game: 9 governorates

Start

What you are looking at

The governorates (muhafazat) of Lebanon, the first tier of the country. Three of the nine are recent. Akkar and Baalbek-Hermel were split off from the North and the Beqaa governorates in 2003 and 2014, and Keserwan-Jbeil was split from Mount Lebanon in 2017, so a map more than a few years old shows six or eight of them. This quiz draws all nine.

The governorates are the Lebanon Districts grouped, so the borders of the two maps match exactly. Beirut is a governorate that is a single city, and is small enough to need a closer look on the map.

The groups are not an official classification. Lebanon has no tier between the governorate and the country, so the quiz cuts the nine into the north, Beirut with Mount Lebanon, the south and the Beqaa valley, to let you drill the country a piece at a time.

How to place one

Start with the coast. From the north, Akkar, North Lebanon, Keserwan-Jbeil, Mount Lebanon with Beirut at its edge, South Lebanon: five governorates, one after another along the sea.
Add the inland strip. Baalbek-Hermel and the Beqaa are the two governorates in the east, on the far side of the mountains, and Baalbek-Hermel is the northern and larger.
Find Nabatieh last. It sits behind South Lebanon, in the south east, between the coast and the Beqaa, and is the one players most often lose.

Every governorate, by group

North2 governorates: Akkar, North Lebanon
Beqaa valley2 governorates: Baalbek-Hermel, Beqaa
Beirut and Mount Lebanon3 governorates: Beirut, Keserwan-Jbeil, Mount Lebanon
South2 governorates: Nabatieh, South Lebanon

Worked examples

Beirut

The city that is a governorate

Beirut is the capital and the smallest governorate by a wide margin: the municipality of the city and nothing else. The suburbs that make up most of the urban area lie in Mount Lebanon, which wraps around it to the south and east.

Keserwan-Jbeil

The newest one

Keserwan-Jbeil was created in 2017 from the two northern districts of Mount Lebanon. It is a short stretch of coast and mountain north of Beirut, which includes the ancient port of Byblos.

Baalbek-Hermel

The big one in the north east

Baalbek-Hermel is the largest governorate, a long arid stretch from the Beqaa valley to the Syrian border, with the Roman ruins of Baalbek at its centre.

Frequently asked questions

How many governorates does Lebanon have?

Nine. Older maps show six or eight, from before Baalbek-Hermel and Keserwan-Jbeil were created.

Why are the groups not official?

Lebanon has no administrative tier between the governorates and the country, so the quiz groups the nine into four parts of the map by position.

What is below the governorate?

The districts, which number 26. They are their own quiz.

The tier below this one is Lebanon Districts. For another country at this level, see Tunisia Governorates.

Sources

geoBoundaries, Lebanon ADM2 and ADM1, the boundaries; the governorates are the districts dissolved, so the two maps share every border
Governorates of Lebanon, the nine governorates and the districts in each

Loading game...