Tigray Region
Tigray is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, the Afar Region to the east, and the Amhara Region to the south and southwest. Besides Mekelle, major cities include Adigrat, Aksum, Shire, Humera, Adwa, Alamata, Wukro, Maychew, Sheraro, Abiy Adi, Korem, Qwiha, Hawzen, Mekoni and Zalambessa. There is also the historically significant town of Yeha.
Tigray Province
The spiritual core of Tigray was and is Aksum. Even if being formally under the rulership of the central province (Tigray proper), the town enjoyed a special status, as a free city with its own self-government. Its administrators were the , a governor appointed by the Ethiopian ruler, and the , the mayor elected by the male members of the seven "Aksumite clans" of Aksum, , , , , , , . These encompassed the entire whole indigenous city population, who was not to pay any taxes. The represented the sphere of the Ethiopian state and often descended from the local leading families; if he was a layman, he appointed an (speaker of the ) for the administration of church issues. Aksum as the guardian of the Tables of the Law (, also identified as ; Ark of Covenant) was regarded as "a church". On this ground its priests did not allow "atse" Yohannes IV to permanently establish his royal there, who therefore used Mekelle as his capital. The city population managed to defend their traditional self-government - with the being independent from the - even throughout the 20th century politics of centralization by "atse" Haile Selassie I.