Street and footprint positions.
The Old City layer keeps the geometry recorded in the dated source snapshot, including buildings later absent from live map data.
A city held in memory.
UNWAN preserves a playable snapshot of Gaza Old City streets and building footprints dated 6 October 2023, then clearly separates that geographic record from interpreted height, architecture, narrative, and the surrounding compressed world.
What is preserved—and what is not.
The Old City crop uses the OpenStreetMap database as it stood on 6 October 2023, with 1,389 building features and 95 road ways projected at one world unit per metre. This is a database date, not a survey of every building on that day; contributor inaccuracies and older edits remain part of the record.
Height, façade, and use.
The snapshot contains no measured building heights and only three floor counts. Most heights are illustrative estimates from footprint area; facades are interpreted and the ground is level. Fictional story uses do not document a real household.
The connected region.
Roads and places beyond the mapped Old City crop are connected through an authored game-scale region. They are not a 1:1 reconstruction or navigation system.
Places remembered across time.
The standing city brings together memories from different years. It does not depict all of Gaza on one historical date. Each named place in the game has a record separating its reference period, evidence and interpretation.
Commodore Hotel Gaza.
The exterior refers to Mujaddara’s photograph dated 17 January 2011. Unseen sides, dimensions and placement on the compressed waterfront are interpreted.
View the photograph and attribution ↗
Al-Jalaa Tower.
Al-Jalaa is shown standing to remember its homes and workplaces, although it was destroyed before the 2023 Old City baseline. Its silhouette and placement are interpreted.
Al Mezan · residential towers, 2021 ↗Sheikh ‘Ijlin Mosque.
The coastal model refers to the contemporary mosque whose soft opening took place on 17 November 2022, with some work remaining. It is separate from the dated Old City map layer.
West Java Government · opening record ↗Historic places represented.
Named heritage references use institutional and municipal sources. Buildings remain standing in the game as an intact city-memory reference, including places verified as damaged after the baseline period.
Great Omari Mosque
الجامع العمري الكبير
Represented through its preserved courtyard, curved pointed arches and a square-based octagonal minaret with a covered gallery. Architectural cues refer to photographs from 2009 and 2017; dimensions remain estimated.
State of Palestine · tentative-list submission published by UNESCO ↗Suq al-Qaysariyya
سوق القيسارية
A narrow Mamluk covered market adjoining the Great Omari Mosque. The playable layer marks its southern edge with a sign and shallow shopfronts; it does not reconstruct a walkable vaulted interior.
Gaza Municipality · al-Daraj quarter ↗Qasr al-Basha
قصر الباشا
A Mamluk-origin civic complex also known as Pasha’s Palace or Radwan Palace. Two museum footprints are associated editorially with its historical map point; the source does not explicitly name those buildings as the palace. Heights and facades are interpreted.
Gaza Municipality · architectural heritage ↗Church of Saint Porphyrius
كنيسة القديس برفيريوس
A Greek Orthodox heritage place represented with a compact bell wall and stone facade cues from a 2022 photograph. UNESCO records damage to the church complex, which does not itself establish destruction of the church building. Its map contributor explicitly marked the footprint as approximate. The model retains that uncertainty; its height and facades are interpreted.
Patriarchate of Jerusalem · historical churches ↗Sheikh ‘Ijlin Mosque
مسجد الشيخ عجلين
The contemporary Sheikh ‘Ijlin Mosque is placed near the coastal road as an interpreted regional reference rather than part of the Old City map snapshot.
West Java Government · 2022 opening ↗Saint Hilarion Monastery
دير القديس هيلاريون / تل أم عامر
A UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site included in the regional heritage index, not relocated into the Gaza City playable area.
UNESCO World Heritage · Saint Hilarion ↗Photographic references.
These photographs inform specific visible architectural features. They do not establish measured dimensions or unseen elevations. Images are linked with their attribution and licence; they are not bundled as game textures.
- Omari courtyard · Aliaa M. Etaish · 18 October 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗
- Omari minaret · rahimabaid · 5 September 2009 · CC BY-SA 3.0 ↗
- Qasr al-Basha · Dan Palraz · 29 November 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗
- Saint Porphyrius · Dan Palraz · 29 November 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗
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Al-Jalaa's floor count remains disputed in the sources: AP describes 12 storeys, while Human Rights Watch describes 14. The model follows AP's description while retaining this disagreement in its record.
UNESCO's assessment as of 24 March 2026 records damage to Omari, Qasr al-Basha, the Qaysariyya market and the Saint Porphyrius complex. Their standing representation is an act of remembrance.
People and living memory.
Homes, work, worship and shared neighborhood spaces are part of what this memorial seeks to remember. The game's people and family stories are fictional composites, not recorded testimony. Published sources alone do not establish that residents recognize their own lives in the work; cultural validation requires their participation.
Use limits
A cultural experience, not a live map.
UNWAN cannot show every place, history, condition, or Palestinian experience. It must not be used for navigation, address lookup, damage assessment, present-day control, road access, or safety decisions. The historic layer records a date; it does not freeze Palestinian life in the past.