Levante, Spain

The Levante (Spanish: [leˈβante], Valencian: Llevant, IPA: [ʎeˈvant]) 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, Murcia, Catalonia, the eastern part of Castile-La Mancha (Albacete and Cuenca) and Andalusia (Almería and Granada) and the southern part of Aragon (Teruel).

However, in its normal usage, the Levante specifically refers to only the Valencian Community and Murcia.

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 the Valencian Community.

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.