Ramallah is the administrative capital of the State of Palestine: the seat of the president, the cabinet and nearly every ministry, even though Palestine’s proclaimed capital is Jerusalem. The city stands on a ridge of the Judaean Mountains in the central West Bank, about 10 km (6 miles) north of Jerusalem and 872 metres above sea level. The 2017 Palestinian census counted 38,998 residents, and the built-up area runs straight into its twin city, al-Bireh, which had about 45,975 people that year. Its name means “God’s Height”, and the height is what shaped the place, from its springs and orchards to the view of the Mediterranean that visitors have described since the 19th century.
A Ridge 872 Metres Above the Sea
Ramallah sits on the watershed of the central highlands, the spine of hills that runs north to south through the West Bank. To the west the land drops through terraced valleys towards the coastal plain; to the east it falls away much more steeply towards the Jordan Valley. When surveyors of the Palestine Exploration Fund mapped the area in 1883, they described Ramallah as a large Christian village of well-built stone houses standing on a high ridge, with a view to the west that reached the sea. That same survey counted three springs to the south of the village, one to the west and three more within a mile to the north, plus a well on the east side.
Those springs explain why people stayed here. Rain falls in a Mediterranean pattern (Köppen Csa): hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters with occasional snow. The long-term average is about 615 mm a year, but the record swings widely, from a low of about 307 mm to a high of about 1,591 mm. On a limestone ridge that sheds water quickly, a dependable spring line made farming possible, and it is no accident that the old core of the town grew up close to them.
The height also made Ramallah a place to pass through. The ridge road between Jerusalem and Nablus follows the crest of the hills, and neighbouring al-Bireh was an economic crossroads on that caravan route long before Ramallah mattered. A new road linking Nablus and Jerusalem was laid through the site of what is now the city centre by 1905, fixing the town’s position on the main north–south artery of the highlands.
Apples, Olives and the Hebron Endowment
The earliest traces in the area are older than the town itself. Rock-cut tombs have been found near Ramallah, and just south of the built-up area lies Tell en-Nasbeh, the likely site of biblical Mizpah in Benjamin. Several buildings in the city reuse masonry from the reign of Herod the Great (37–4 BCE), though no complete building predates the Crusader period. A Crusader document of 1198 recorded the place as Ramalie, a farming settlement near Jerusalem.
Written records become detailed under the Mamluks. Endowment (waqf) documents from the first decade of the 14th century, probably tied to a waqf set up by Sultan Qalawun around 1280, show that Ramallah’s revenues went to the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. Twelve villagers jointly acknowledged a duty to pay 950 dirhams from the sale of their apples, olives and cotton, and they also grew grain and vetch. Orchards set Ramallah apart from most villages in those documents: fruit trees take years to mature, which suggests unusual investment and private ownership on the ridge. By the end of Mamluk rule the village seems to have emptied, and an Ottoman tax register of 1525 lists it as an uninhabited farm.
The Haddadin and a Christian Village of the Hills
Resettlement came quickly. Registers from 1531 to 1548 show a few Muslim families back in the village, among them the Labud from nearby Ein Qiniya. From the mid-16th century Christian families arrived in larger numbers, many of them from the Karak region of what is now southern Jordan, moving by way of the Hebron hills and Beit Jala. Local tradition credits the founding of modern Ramallah to five sons of Rashid ibn Saqr al-Haddadin, a Christian clan whose name means “blacksmiths”, and the Ottoman records largely match that story. By 1596 the register listed 71 Christian and 9 Muslim households.
The village kept growing as an agricultural settlement. The American scholar Edward Robinson counted 200 taxable men in 1838, suggesting about 800 to 900 people, all of them Christians “of the Greek rite”. The Church of the Transfiguration went up in 1852, a Melkite Catholic church followed in 1895, and Quaker missionaries opened a girls’ training home in 1869 that became the Friends Girls School in 1889; the Friends Boys School was founded in 1901. Those schools drew pupils from Jerusalem, Jaffa and even Beirut, and gave the hill town an outsized reputation for education.
From 1901 Ramallah merchants began emigrating to the United States, and the pattern never stopped. Under Jordanian rule after 1948 roughly a quarter of the town’s 6,000 natives had left by 1956, while people from Hebron and surrounding villages bought the homes they left behind. The American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine was founded in Detroit in 1959. The result is a city whose Christian founders are now a minority, with sources putting the Christian share at around 25 per cent.
Al-Manara Square and the Join with al-Bireh
Ramallah never grew in isolation. Al-Bireh, just to the east at about 860 metres, was the older and predominantly Muslim town on the same ridge, and the two are now a single urban area split between two municipalities. The point where they meet became the centre of the modern city. Until the end of the 19th century, the site of al-Manara Square was a dirt road between the two towns. An Ottoman decree of 1902 made Ramallah a local administrative centre, and after 1918 the British made it the seat of its own district.
In 1935, when Ramallah and al-Bireh were connected to an electricity grid, a switchboard for the street lights was mounted on a pole on the road between them. People called it al-Manara, “the lighthouse”, and the name stuck to the square that grew around it. The square is still the hub where the main roads converge, with the old town, the market streets and the newer commercial districts radiating from it.
British rule brought money and infrastructure. In the 1920s landowners and merchants built multi-storey villas, many still standing. The Jerusalem Electric Company wired most homes after 1939, and that year the Palestine Broadcasting Service began transmitting from Ramallah in Arabic, Hebrew and English. The hill that had once offered farmers springs now offered broadcasters a clear line of sight.
How the Mukataa Turned a Hill Town into a Capital
The building that made Ramallah a capital was a British fort. During the 1936–39 Arab revolt, the Mandate authorities built the Mukataa, a compound built by the British engineer Sir Charles Tegart, about 800 metres from al-Manara. It served as military headquarters, court and prison. Jordan took it over in May 1948, and after Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War it became the Israeli military headquarters for the area.
The Oslo Accords changed its tenant. In December 1995 the Israeli army left the Mukataa and withdrew to the city’s outskirts, and Ramallah became part of Area A, under full Palestinian civil and security control. Yasser Arafat moved into the compound in 1996 and made it his West Bank headquarters. It was meant as an interim arrangement, since Palestinians regard East Jerusalem as their capital and Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its own. In 2002, during Operation Defensive Shield, the compound was partly demolished and Arafat was confined there. He died in France in November 2004 and was buried in its courtyard, where his mausoleum now stands.
When Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, some US officials suggested the Palestinian Authority move its seat back to Gaza City, where it had first been set up in 1994. Mahmoud Abbas declined, arguing that keeping the administrative centre in the West Bank reminded the world that its status was still unresolved. Critics among Palestinians have warned that pouring ministries into Ramallah signals an acceptance that Jerusalem is out of reach, which is why the city is usually described as the de facto rather than the official capital. For more on the competing claims, see our guide to Jerusalem as a capital city.
Area A, Settlements and the Limits of a Hilltop City
The same ridge that sheltered a village now constrains a capital. Ramallah’s Area A enclave is ringed by land under different Oslo categories, and Israeli settlements such as Beit El and Psagot sit on neighbouring hills. Israeli human rights groups have argued that the settlements and their bypass roads have blocked the city’s expansion and cut it off from surrounding Arab villages. Travel to Jerusalem, just 10 km away, requires special permits for most residents, and the West Bank barrier has added to the sense of isolation.
Growth has gone up instead of out. After the Second Intifada, hundreds of millions of dollars in donor aid flowed into the city, and its built-up area has grown fivefold since 2002. Apartment towers and hotels rose in the Al-Masyoun district, more than a hundred businesses were reported to have moved from East Jerusalem by 2010, and most embassies and representative offices accredited to the Palestinian Authority, from Brazil to Japan, sit in or near the city. Ramallah also became the cultural centre of the West Bank: the Ramallah Cultural Palace opened in 2004 with a 736-seat auditorium, and the poet Mahmoud Darwish was buried beside it in 2008, on a hilltop on the south-western edge of the city that looks towards Jerusalem.
The ridge beyond the city is filling in too. Rawabi, the first planned Palestinian city, was begun in January 2010 on hills to the north near Birzeit, with a master plan for 6,000 homes and 25,000 to 40,000 people; its opening was delayed for years by a dispute over a water connection that had to cross Area C. Birzeit University, founded as a girls’ school in 1924 and a university since 1975, anchors the same corridor. Together they show the pattern that has held since the Mamluk orchards: the highland position gives Ramallah its air, its view and its access to the north–south road, while control of land and water around it decides how far it can grow. The city’s mix of mosques and churches is a legacy of that history, traced further in our look at religion in Palestine, and the wider picture of the territories it governs is set out in the Palestine country guide.
Quick Facts About Ramallah
- Country: Palestine
- Continent: Asia (Middle East)
- Country population: approximately 5.7 million
- Capital city status: Ramallah is the capital of Palestine, the seat of national government, and the location of foreign embassies, parliament, and the head of state's official residence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the capital of Palestine?
The capital of Palestine is Ramallah. Ramallah is the seat of national government, hosts most foreign embassies and consulates, and is typically where the head of state and parliament are located.
What continent is Ramallah in?
Ramallah, the capital of Palestine, is located in Asia, in the Middle East region. As Palestine's capital, Ramallah serves as the country's primary connection to the broader Asian political, economic, and cultural sphere.
Why is Ramallah the capital of Palestine?
Ramallah was chosen as the capital of Palestine for reasons that typically combine geography, history, and politics. Capital city selections often reflect a desire for centrality (being accessible from across the country), historical importance (being a longstanding seat of government or culture), or neutrality (being acceptable to multiple regions or ethnic groups within the country). The specific reasons for Ramallah's designation are detailed in the city's history above.
What is Ramallah known for?
As the capital of Palestine, Ramallah is best known for housing the country's central government institutions — parliament, presidential or royal residences, supreme court, and key ministries. It is also typically a major cultural and economic center within Palestine, hosting national museums, embassies, and signature monuments. The introduction and history sections above provide detailed coverage of the city's specific notable institutions and landmarks.
Related Pages
- Palestine Country Guide — full geography, climate, economy, and culture overview
- Flag of Palestine — meaning, history, and design of Palestine's national flag