Geography of Palestine

The name Palestine has been applied to a traditional region without a single precise boundary that holds across all periods. One reference work describes it generally as the southern coastal area between Egypt and Tyre, along the eastern Mediterranean; it notes that the eastern boundary has been especially fluid, sometimes understood to lie east of the Jordan River and extend toward the Arabian Desert.[1] In contemporary usage described by that work, the region lies between Egypt, southern Lebanon, and Jordan and includes the State of Israel, the West Bank—known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria—and the Gaza Strip.[1][4]

Historical sources use the term for areas of differing extent. A historical-biblical account places Palestine between the eastern Mediterranean and the Arabian Desert, including elevated territory east of the Jordan, and gives approximate dimensions of 100 miles wide by 150 miles long.[2] A 19th-century geographical account instead defines it as the southernmost part of Syria, setting out northern and southern boundary lines from the Mediterranean and estimating about 6,040 square miles west of the Jordan, with a separate, incomplete estimate of about 4,000 square miles east of it.[3] These are period-specific descriptions, not current administrative boundaries.[3]

The distinction between western and eastern territory also appears in later geographical writing. A 2003 study uses “Western Palestine” for the area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River and associates it with the British Mandate area from 1922 to 1948.[5] The same study’s terminology should not be taken as defining every historical use of Palestine, while the broader account by Charles Foster Kent includes elevated lands east of the Jordan.[2][5] A Ynet encyclopedia account describes the 19th-century Arabic term Filastin as referring to a large part of the Land of Israel on both sides of the Jordan River; it says that during the British Mandate the name Palestine was applied to the country and its residents, including Jews and Arabs.[6]

Mandate-era sources also reflect distinct territorial frameworks. A 1937 British report to the League of Nations describes Palestine as bounded by the Mediterranean to the west, French-mandated Syria and Lebanon to the north, Trans-Jordan to the east, and Egyptian territory and the Gulf of Aqaba to the south and southeast.[7] It places the territory at approximately 30°–33° north latitude and 34°30′–35°30′ east longitude, and gives its length as about 160 miles, its maximum width as less than 70 miles, and its area as approximately 10,100 square miles, including 261 square miles of water.[7] These figures belong to the report’s Mandate-era definition, which treated Trans-Jordan separately.[7]

A later administrative survey, the 1945–46 Survey of Palestine, reports 26,320 km² of land plus 704 km² of inland water, for a stated total of 27,024 km².[8] Its inland-water total comprises Lake Huleh, Lake Tiberias, and half of the Dead Sea.[8] A Grade 8 textbook passage quoted in an IMPACT-se report defines Palestine as extending from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, from Lebanon and Syria in the north to the Gulf of Aqaba and Egypt in the south, and gives an area of about 27,027 km²; the report characterizes this as using the extent of historic British Mandate Palestine.[9] The near similarity between that educational-material figure and the Survey’s total does not make the two descriptions identical or establish a timeless boundary.[8][9]

Other sources use wider or differently assembled measurements. A Library of Congress country study’s historical account extends Palestine from the Mediterranean east to the Arabian Desert and from the lower Litani River south to the Gaza Valley.[10] A National Library of Israel catalog record reproduces a publisher’s description of Palestine, as the term came to be used after World War I, as including present-day Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, between the Mediterranean and Jordan River and between Lebanon and the Gulf of Aqaba and Sinai Peninsula.[11] A 2003 demographic study gives an approximate 28,000 km² for “Western Palestine,” while its accompanying table lists 27,555 km² for Israel and the Palestinian Territories, with Israel’s figure including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.[5] Each number depends on its stated scope, period, and component areas rather than serving as a universal measurement.[5][8][11]

The geographic term is also distinct from current political and administrative labels. The American Jewish Committee describes the West Bank as land west of the Jordan River, contrasting it with the East Bank, which became modern Jordan.[4] The Green Line refers in that account to the 1949 lines separating Israel from the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights after the War of Independence; it served as Israel’s de facto borders until the 1967 war.[4] The same source says the Palestinian Authority views territories beyond the Green Line as part of a future Palestinian state.[4] These political reference lines and claims are not interchangeable with the broader historical-geographical use of Palestine.

A recurring feature in descriptions of the land is a sequence of contrasting north–south zones: coastal lowlands, central uplands, the Jordan Rift and Valley, and desert terrain in the south. A 1937 British report groups the main landforms as the maritime plain, central highlands, and Jordan Valley, with the Plain of Esdraelon dividing the northern highlands of Galilee from Samaria and Judea to the south.[7] The 1945–46 Survey of Palestine divides the country into seven regions: the maritime plain; the coastal plain of Acre; the plains of Esdraelon and Jezreel; the central range of Judaea and Samaria; the hills of Galilee; the Jordan Valley; and the Beersheba district.[8] In its geography of Israel, a Library of Congress study uses four broad regions—the coastal plain, central highlands, Jordan Rift Valley, and Negev Desert.[10]

The coastal lowlands vary greatly in width and character. In Britannica’s account, the Plain of Acre runs about 32 km from the Lebanon border to the Carmel promontory, where it narrows to about 180 m; farther south, the Plain of Sharon is about 13 km wide and extends toward Tel Aviv–Yafo.[12] South of Jaffa, the coastal plain widens into the fertile district historically known as Philistia, described in that account as supporting orange groves, irrigated orchards, and grain fields.[12] The 1937 report characterizes the coastal plain as mostly fertile sand and sandy loam, averaging about 20 miles wide in the south, narrowing near Mount Carmel as hills approach the sea, then widening again beyond Carmel.[7]

A historical-biblical description likewise emphasizes how the coastal strip broadens toward the south: it estimates a width of roughly one to five miles in the north and up to 25 miles in the south.[2] It identifies the Plain of Tyre, Plain of Acre, Plain of Sharon, and Plain of Philistia as coastal subdivisions and describes alluvial soils, including clay and red quartz sand washed down from the central plateau.[2] A separate historical account places the Shephelah foothills west of the Judean mountains and the Sharon and Philistia plains farther west, and notes that the coastal strip south of Mount Carmel lacked a natural harbor.[13]

The central highlands form an uneven north–south backbone rather than a uniform ridge. The 1937 report describes them as divided by the Plain of Esdraelon, with Galilee to the north and Samaria and Judea to the south.[7] A historical geographical account says the mountain axis lies closer to the Jordan than to the Mediterranean, leaving about two-thirds of the west-Jordan country west of the watershed; it describes longer valley systems descending westward toward the sea and a steeper eastern descent.[3] In its description of Israel, the Library of Congress study identifies Upper and Lower Galilee, the Samarian Hills, and the Judean Hills within the upland zone.[10]

Galilee itself includes varied terrain. Britannica describes Upper Galilee as a scrub-covered limestone plateau reaching about 1,200 m, while Lower Galilee has east–west ridges and sheltered valleys, including the Nazareth valley, and basaltic soils.[12] In the same account, Mount Tabor is the highest peak of Lower Galilee at 588 m.[12] A historical 1945–46 survey identifies Jebel Jarmaq, at 1,208 m, as the highest mountain in its geographic account, and reports Tell Asur at 1,016 m as the highest point in the Judaean hills and Mount Ebal at 940 m in the Samaria hills.[8] The Grade 10 textbook described in an IMPACT-se report similarly names Jabal al-Jarmaq, or Mount Meron, as the highest mountain in its definition of Palestine, giving its elevation as 1,208 m.[14]

South of Galilee, the Jezreel Valley separates the hills of southern Galilee from the mountains of Samaria. It reaches a maximum width of about 26 km and narrows toward the northwest, where the Kishon River runs toward the Plain of Acre, and toward the southeast, where the Jalud (Harod) River cuts into the Jordan Valley.[12] Britannica describes fertile basaltic soils washed down from Galilean hills and identifies the valley’s location as a major route between the Mediterranean and lands across the Jordan.[12] The 1937 report characterizes the Plain of Esdraelon as a roughly triangular break in the mountain system, with heavier, more clayey soil than the coastal plain and especially suitable land for cereal production.[7]

Descriptions of the southern central uplands emphasize both rocky terrain and localized cultivation. Britannica describes Samaria as a hilly district from the Jezreel Valley to the latitude of Ramallah, and the Judaean plateau as a rocky limestone upland extending from Ramallah toward Beersheba.[12] Between the Judaean plateau and the coast lies the Shefela, a belt of low chalky hills about 8–13 km wide.[12] A 1937 account calls much of the highlands stony and relatively barren while noting stretches of fertile land capable of deep cultivation.[7] The 1946 Anglo-American Committee report describes rocky highlands parched for much of the year, but says mountain valleys and basins supported cereal cultivation and small terraces carried olives, vines, and fruit trees.[15]

The Jordan Valley is part of a much larger rift and depression. A historical geographical account traces the depression through the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea and south through the Arabah toward the Gulf of Aqaba, and treats the coastal plain as another major regional division.[3] Britannica describes the Jordan Valley as a deep rift, between about 2.5 and 22 km wide, descending to approximately 400 m below sea level.[12] Its northern part includes the beds of drained Lake Hula and Lake Tiberias, or the Sea of Galilee, separated by natural basalt dams.[12] The valley is exceptionally hot and dry, with cultivation largely concentrated in irrigated areas and oases such as Jericho and Ein Gedi.[12]

The Dead Sea marks the valley’s lowest section in these descriptions. The 1937 report places the valley at 1,300 feet below sea level at the Dead Sea, roughly 100 miles south of the point where it begins around sea level in the north.[7] Britannica gives a depth of about 400 m below sea level and identifies it as the lowest land depth on Earth’s surface.[12] The 1945–46 survey records the Dead Sea’s area as 1,050 km², its level as 392 m below mean sea level, and its maximum depth as 399 m; it notes that the lake has no outlet and that surplus water is removed by evaporation.[8] These measurements come from different accounts and should be understood in their respective periods and units.[7][8][12]

The Negev, or Negeb, forms a large desert region in the south. Britannica describes it as a roughly triangular, desertlike area from Beersheba to Eilat on the Red Sea, bounded by the Sinai Peninsula to the west and the northern extension of the Great Rift Valley to the east.[12] Rainfall and land use vary across it: Britannica reports 200 mm or more of annual precipitation at the northern end, where grain is grown, while the south is extremely arid.[12] The 1945–46 survey describes the Beersheba district as a triangle with its apex at the Gulf of Aqaba and an area of approximately 12,576 km², nearly half the land area measured in that survey.[8] A 2003 study describes the Beersheba Subdistrict as mostly desert or arid and covering 12,946 km², or 58 percent of the area it calls Israel.[5] The different figures reflect the sources’ different territories and classifications.[5][8]

Water availability is a defining constraint on settlement and land use. Britannica notes that water is rarely abundant, perennial rivers are few, and porous limestone across much of the region contributes to scarcity.[12] Rainfall generally comes during the cooler half of the year, from October through April, and declines from north to south and from the coast inland.[12] The 1945–46 survey describes the climate as transitional between Mediterranean and desert types, with winter as the rainy season and the greatest rainfall from December through February; it gives Jerusalem an average annual rainfall of 583 mm.[8]

The Jordan River system runs through the rift valley and connects northern lakes with the Dead Sea. The 1945–46 survey gives the Jordan’s length from its source near Banias to the Dead Sea as 252 km, and reports a 279 m drop between Lake Huleh and Lake Tiberias.[8] The same survey lists the Yarmuk as 40 km long, with 17 km in Palestine, and records the Qishon and Auja (Yarkon) rivers as 13 km and 26 km long respectively.[8] A textbook passage quoted in the IMPACT-se report says the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea and the ‘Awjah (Yarkon) flows into the Mediterranean.[9]

The 1945–46 survey records Lake Huleh at 70 m above mean sea level and Lake Tiberias at 209 m below it.[8] It describes the Dead Sea as a closed lake, without an outlet, with excess water removed by evaporation.[8] A separate historical account describes the Jordan as flowing in a narrow channel within a wider, brush-filled floodplain and gives the Sea of Galilee’s surface as 682 feet below the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea’s as 1,292 feet below it.[13]

The westward-flowing valleys and rivers also connect interior lands to the coast. The Kishon crosses the Jezreel Valley toward the Plain of Acre, while the Jalud (Harod) River cuts southeast toward the Jordan Valley.[12] The 1945–46 survey lists the Qishon and Auja (Yarkon) among the rivers flowing toward the Mediterranean.[8] The available accounts stress that river flow and rainfall do not remove the broader constraint of limited reliable water, especially in the dry Jordan Valley and Negev.[8][12]

Climate varies sharply across a relatively compact set of coast, upland, valley, and desert environments. A 1937 report characterizes the general climate as warm and dry in summer and mild in winter, with periodic heavy rainfall and rare frost.[7] Mediterranean westerly winds moderate temperatures on the coastal plain, while the central highlands experience larger daily and seasonal temperature ranges, including occasional snow and hail in Jerusalem and Hebron; the Jordan Valley is markedly hotter in summer and warm in winter.[7]

Rainfall follows a seasonal pattern but varies by location. The 1937 account says rains begin in October and November, increase from December through February, diminish in March, and are nearly over by April.[7] The 1945–46 survey similarly identifies October through April as the rainy season and December through February as the period of maximum rainfall.[8] Britannica describes precipitation as generally decreasing southward and inland from the coast, and notes that water scarcity is intensified by the small number of perennial rivers and the porosity of limestone.[12]

The survey distinguishes four climatic regions: a generally wetter coastal plain with mild winters; cooler hills with cold winters; a hot, dry Jordan Valley with scarce rainfall; and a hot, dry Negeb with poor rainfall.[8] In the highlands, the 1937 report notes occasional snow and hail, whereas the valley’s lower elevation brings a much hotter climate.[7] A historical-biblical account describes the elevated plateaus east of the Jordan as colder than western Palestine, with winter frost and snow.[2]

Soils reflect geology and relief. The coastal plain’s sand and sandy loam are generally fertile, while the Plain of Esdraelon has heavier, more clayey soil suited to cereal production.[7] Britannica attributes the Jezreel Valley’s fertility to rich basaltic soil washed down from the Galilean hills.[12] The 1946 Anglo-American Committee describes the contrast between fertile coastal ground and the Plain of Esdraelon, rocky highlands, and southern deserts; it notes cereal production in mountain valleys and basins and the cultivation of olives, vines, and fruit trees on small terraces.[15]

Erosion is a concern where slopes lack protective cover. The 1946 committee reports that winter rainfall could wash soil from hillsides without terracing or forest cover.[15] Historical geographical descriptions add that alluvial soils along the coast include material carried down from the central plateau.[2] Taken together, these accounts describe a landscape where cultivation is concentrated in fertile plains, valleys, irrigated locations, and terraced uplands, while extensive areas are rocky, arid, or dependent on scarce seasonal rain.[7][12][15]

Educational materials quoted in IMPACT-se reports offer one particular definition and regional organization of Palestine. A Grade 8 social-studies textbook defines it as the area from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River and from Lebanon and Syria south to the Gulf of Aqaba and Egypt, and gives an area of about 27,027 km².[9] The report describes this scope as using the extent of historic British Mandate Palestine; it is a definition presented in the analyzed textbook, not a universally agreed boundary or an independent measurement.[9]

The Grade 8 passage divides the geography into mountains, coastal areas and interior plains, highlands, and the Jordan Valley.[9] Examples named include the northern and central mountains, Nablus and Hebron, the coastal plain and the cities of Jaffa and Gaza, the Negev Highlands and Beersheba, and the Jordan Valley and Jericho.[9] It also mentions the Jordan River flowing into the Dead Sea and the ‘Awjah (Yarkon) River flowing into the Mediterranean.[9]

A Grade 10 geography textbook, as quoted in another IMPACT-se report, describes the Galilee Mountains as extending from the Lebanese border to the Jezreel Valley.[14] It names Jabal al-Jarmaq (Mount Meron) as the highest mountain in its definition of Palestine, at 1,208 m, and describes forests, substantial rainfall, and springs in the Galilee.[14] These claims are attributed to the textbook in the report.[14]

The same Grade 10 material identifies Marj Ibn Amer, Batuf, Sanur, Arrabah, and Hawara among interior valleys or plains.[14] It gives Batuf Valley an area of 52 km² and Marj Ibn Amer Valley an area of 351 km², locating the latter between the Galilee Mountains and the mountains of Nablus.[14] The report notes that the textbook’s geographic scope includes locations within Israel.[14] These textbook descriptions should be read as a particular educational framing of the region, rather than as an independent standard for present-day boundaries or measurements.[9][14]

Modern descriptions often distinguish the West Bank and Gaza Strip as separate territories within the broader geographic usage of Palestine. The West Bank is a landlocked, hilly territory west of the Jordan River, bordered by Jordan, the Dead Sea, and Israel.[4] The American Jewish Committee gives its area as 2,183 square miles, while ADL gives approximately 2,262 square miles; the cited pages do not explain the difference between their calculations.[4][16] A Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research report gives the area as about 5,612 km², while a 2003 demographic study lists 5,506 km².[17][5]

The name West Bank refers to the territory’s location on the west bank of the Jordan River, in contrast to the East Bank, which became modern Jordan.[4] The territory is also known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria; many Israelis use that terminology, while Palestinians and much of the international community prefer “West Bank.”[4] The territory has had a near-continuous Jewish presence for thousands of years and contains major Jewish historical and religious sites.[4]

Under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B, and C, with Area C comprising about 60 percent of the territory; the American Jewish Committee describes authority as divided between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.[4] The Green Line refers to the 1949 lines separating Israel from the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights after the War of Independence.[4] The line served as Israel’s de facto borders until the 1967 war, and the Palestinian Authority views territories beyond it as part of a future Palestinian state.[4]

The Gaza Strip is a densely populated coastal strip between Israel and Egypt, approximately 25 miles long and 7 miles wide.[18] ADL states that Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip after the War of Independence and that Israel gained control of it in the 1967 war.[18] A Jerusalem Institute report gives Gaza’s area as 365 km², while the 2003 demographic study lists 378 km².[17][5] As with the West Bank, these figures belong to their respective sources and are not reconciled by the cited passages.[5][17]

The 2003 study lists a combined “Total Palestinian Territories” area of 5,884 km², adding its West Bank and Gaza figures.[5] Such totals describe the categories used by that study and should not be confused with the much larger areas assigned to Palestine in Mandate-era surveys, historical-biblical accounts, or educational definitions.[5][8][9]

The region’s location links the Mediterranean coast with Egypt, Syria, and lands east of the Jordan. The 1946 Anglo-American Committee report says Palestine lay across routes connecting Cairo and Damascus, Egypt and other Arab League members, and Iraq and Trans-Jordan with Mediterranean outlets.[15] It characterized the region as lying “across natural lines of communication.”[15]

These routes follow the same physical corridors that organize the landforms. The Jezreel Valley offers a passage between the Mediterranean and territories across the Jordan, and its rivers lead toward the coastal plain and Jordan Valley.[12] A modern reference account also notes routes crossing from Egypt to Syria and from the Mediterranean toward the hills east of the Jordan River.[12] The combination of coastal plains, an interior valley, and a north–south upland spine places major natural routes close together.[2][12]

The 1946 committee also describes an oil pipeline that delivered crude to the Haifa refineries, from which tankers carried it to destinations around and beyond the Mediterranean.[15] This observation records the region’s strategic and economic geography as presented in that period, rather than describing an unchanging contemporary infrastructure pattern.[15]

The scope of the name Palestine is a significant historical and political question, not merely a matter of choosing between equivalent area estimates. Britannica emphasizes that the traditional regional name does not carry precise boundaries and that its geographic extent and political status have changed over roughly three millennia.[1] Its account distinguishes the post–World War I British Mandate, which included an area roughly corresponding to present-day Israel and the West Bank as well as territory east of the Jordan, from the separate administration Britain placed over east-Jordan territory shortly after receiving the mandate.[1] Other sources instead limit their Mandate-era measurements to Palestine west of the Jordan or use broader historical-biblical regions that include land east of it.[2][7]

The sources consequently report substantially different area figures. The 1937 British report gives approximately 10,100 square miles including water for the territory it calls Palestine, while the 1945–46 Survey of Palestine gives a total of 27,024 km² for its surveyed territory.[7][8] The 2003 study uses about 28,000 km² for “Western Palestine,” and its table gives 27,555 km² for Israel and the Palestinian Territories under its own accounting, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in the Israel figure.[5] These totals should not be presented as directly comparable without accounting for their different definitions and component areas.[5][7][8]

The same qualification applies to measurements of the West Bank and Gaza. The American Jewish Committee and ADL provide different square-mile figures for the West Bank, and the cited pages do not explain the discrepancy.[4][16] The Jerusalem Institute report and the 2003 study also differ in their figures for both the West Bank and Gaza.[17][5] The available passages do not reconcile these differences in reporting dates, boundaries, or measurement conventions, so the figures are best attributed to the specific sources rather than merged into a single asserted measurement.[5][17]

Terminology and status are likewise contested. The West Bank/Judea and Samaria naming difference reflects distinct community usages, while the Green Line functions as a reference line in discussions of Israel and territories beyond it.[4] The American Jewish Committee reports the Palestinian Authority’s view of territories beyond the Green Line as part of a future Palestinian state.[4] These political descriptions are relevant to how contemporary maps and explanations are framed, but they do not erase the broader historical variation in the geographic scope of Palestine.[1][4]