Palestine Governorates

Palestine is made of two pieces of land that do not touch: the West Bank, a hill country on the western bank of the Jordan, and the Gaza Strip, a narrow coastal plain on the Mediterranean about 60 kilometres to the south west. The Palestinian Authority divides the two into 16 governorates, which is what this game asks for.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: The two territories the governorates belong to
In the game: 16 governorates

Start

What you are looking at

The governorates of the State of Palestine as the Palestinian Authority administers them: the West Bank, with East Jerusalem inside the Jerusalem governorate, and the Gaza Strip. The sizes are very uneven. Hebron alone is larger than all five Gaza governorates put together, while Salfit and Tubas are small enough to hide between their neighbours.

The Gaza Strip is only 40 kilometres long, so its five governorates are thin slices laid end to end from the Egyptian border to the line with Israel in the north. In the West Bank the governorates are named for their main city, and they run from Jenin on the northern edge to Hebron in the south.

How to place one

Split the two territories first. The Gaza Strip is the small piece on the coast, and the West Bank is everything inland.
Walk down the Strip. North Gaza, Gaza, Deir Al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah follow one another from the northern border to the Egyptian one.
Find the spine of the West Bank. Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron run north to south through the hills.
Fill in the edges. Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Salfit lie on the western side against the Green Line, and Tubas and Jericho and Al Aghwar run down the Jordan valley on the east.

Every governorate, by territory

West Bank11 governorates: Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Jericho and Al Aghwar, Jerusalem, Nablus, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Salfit, Tubas, Tulkarm
Gaza Strip5 governorates: Deir Al Balah, Gaza, Khan Younis, North Gaza, Rafah

Worked examples

Hebron

The largest

Hebron is the whole southern end of the West Bank, a broad block reaching down to the edge of the Negev, with Bethlehem fitted in at its northern tip.

Rafah

The far south of Gaza

Rafah is the last governorate of the Strip, on the Egyptian border, with Khan Younis directly to its north.

Jericho and Al Aghwar

The Jordan valley

Jericho and Al Aghwar is the long eastern strip of the West Bank beside the Jordan river and the north end of the Dead Sea, with the hill governorates stacked up against its western edge.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the map in two pieces?

The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are separate territories with Israel between them, and the governorates of each are drawn where they are. The game groups them by territory.

Does the map match Israel's?

It is the other side of the same line. The Israel Subdistricts game draws the territory inside the Green Line and the Golan Heights, and leaves out the West Bank and Gaza, which this game draws.