The Levant ( /ləˈvænt/, Arabic: بلاد الشام Bilād ash-Shām) or Arabic: المشرق العربي al-Mashrīq al-'Arabiyy) is a geographic and cultural term referring to the region of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt". The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, Hatay Province and parts of southeastern Turkey, some regions of northwestern Iraq and the Sinai Peninsula.
Precise definitions have varied over time, and the term originally had a broader and less well defined usage. The Levant has been described as the "crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and northeast Africa".
Famous quotes containing the word levant:
“Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you find the real tinsel underneath.”
—Oscar Levant (1906–1972)
“An epigram is only a wisecrack that’s played at Carnegie Hall.”
—Oscar Levant (1906–1972)