The Levante (Spanish: [leˈβante]; Catalan/Valencian: Llevant [ʎəˈβan, ʎəˈvant, ÊŽeˈβan, ÊŽeˈvant]; "Levant, East") is a name used to refer to the eastern region of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. It roughly corresponds to the former Xarq Al-Andalus, but has no modern geopolitical definition. Rather, it broadly includes the autonomous communities of Valencia (provinces of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia), Murcia, Catalonia (Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona), the eastern part of Castile-La Mancha (Albacete and Cuenca), eastern Andalusia (AlmerÃa, Granada and Jaén), southern Aragon (Teruel) and the Balearic Islands.
However, in its normal usage, the Levante specifically refers to the Valencian Community, Murcia, AlmerÃa, the Balearics and the coast of Catalonia.
Among inhabitants of the so-called Levante, the term is rarely used. Its literal meaning would be "the east", and thus makes sense only from the perspective of those who live to the west of Valencia, Catalonia, or the Balearics.
See also
- Levante Offensive
Bibliography
Academic Source for Levante: "Levante, the collective name for four Mediterranean provinces of Spain forming two autonomous regions officially known as Comunitat Valenciana and Región de Murcia." P. 400. Robinson, Jancis (ed.) 2006. The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3. edition. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
