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The Levant

luh-VANT

Also Known As Mashriq Arabic term meaning place where the sun rises, broadly equivalent to the Levant.

Asia

The Levant is the subregion of West Asia along the eastern Mediterranean that forms part of the Middle East. Archaeologists and most current usage take it narrowly to mean Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey's Hatay province; broader historical usage has stretched the term as far as Greece, Egypt and Libya. Scholars adopted the name deliberately as a more neutral alternative to terms such as Syria-Palestine, and the corridor it names has served as the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia, and a crossroads of civilisations, for millennia. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts

Disputed

Area (sq km)

325,000 2

the subject's own accountFigure from a country-by-country size comparison; other rough tallies of the same country set run well above this depending on which countries and which portions of them count as core Levant, and no single authoritative regional total was found.

Population

57,600,000 3

Narrow definition: Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Palestine only; wider historical or cultural definitions of the Levant are not counted here.

Classification

Region Type

Cultural Region 1

Region Type

Cultural Region 1

FAQs

Where does the name Levant come from?

It comes from the French word for rising, meaning the direction where the sun rises.

The word Levant entered English in 1497, when it originally meant the East or the Mediterranean lands east of Italy. It was borrowed from the French levant, meaning rising, and refers to the rising of the sun in the east. Because the name simply points toward sunrise, it was a European way of describing lands to the east.

Connections

Associated With

Jerusalem sits in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains.

Source Jerusalem (Wikipedia)

Palestine is described as being in the Southern Levant region.

Source State of Palestine (Wikipedia)

The Dead Sea sits within the Levant, on the Israel-Jordan boundary the region's narrow definition names.

The Mediterranean Sea

Open Questions

What is the total area of the Levant?

Source Levant (Wikipedia)

In the Other Atlases

Origin Of

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Source Almond (Wikipedia)tier 3

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Source Baba Ghanoush (Wikipedia)tier 3

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Source Cattle (Wikipedia)tier 3

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Source Cumin (Wikipedia)tier 2

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Also in Food and Drink Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Fattoush (Wikipedia)tier 3

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Kashrut (Jewish Dietary Law)

Also in Food and Drink Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source The Oxford Companion to FoodAlan Davidsontier 1

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Source Lahmacun (Wikipedia)tier 3

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Source Wikipedia: Manakish

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Source The Oxford Companion to FoodAlan Davidsontier 1

Middle Eastern Cuisine

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Source The Oxford Companion to FoodAlan Davidsontier 1

Also in Food and Drink Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Also in Food and Drink Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source The Oxford Companion to FoodAlan Davidsontier 1

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Also in Food and Drink Atlas: which originated in this subject.

Source Sfiha, Wikipedia

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Source Shawarma (Wikipedia)tier 3

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Source Qasida (Wikipedia)tier 2

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Source Wikipedia: BedouinLead sectiontier 3

Quote, Lead section

The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( BED-oo-in; Arabic: بَدْو, romanized: badw, singular بَدَوِي badawī) are pastorally semi-nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq/Kuwait).

Location Of

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Wars of Alexander the Great

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Site Of

Levantine Arabic

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Found There

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Source Cattle (Wikipedia)

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Source Cattle (Wikipedia)

Domestication of Cattle

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Source Wikipedia, Cattle

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The Ancient Near East and Bronze Age World

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The Mamluk Period

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The Neo-Assyrian Period

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The New Kingdom of Egypt

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Aramaic languages

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Central Semitic languages

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Source Central Semitic languages (Wikipedia)Lead sentence 3

Quote, Lead sentence 3

The group is spoken across much of the Arabian peninsula and north into the Levant region.

Levantine Arabic

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Source Wikipedia: Levantine ArabicLead sentence 1tier 2

Quote, Lead sentence 1

Levantine Arabic, also called Shami (autonym: شامي, šāmi or اللهجة الشامية, el-lahje š-šāmiyye), is an Arabic variety spoken in the Levant, namely in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and southern Turkey.

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Sources

1. The Levant (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction

Quote, Introduction

The Levant is a subregion of West Asia along the Eastern Mediterranean that forms part of the Middle East.

View the Source

2. MapFight (Country and Region Size Comparison)

MapFightTotal area figure, region size comparison pageView the Source

3. Levant (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia Foundation

Definition and geographic scope section
The Levant is a subregion of West Asia along the Eastern Mediterranean that forms part of the Middle East.
Demographics section
The population of the modern Levant border is approximately 57.6 million consisting of the populations of Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Palestine.
Lead section
The Levant is a subregion of West Asia along the Eastern Mediterranean that forms part of the Middle East.

View the Source

Wikidata: The Levant

Wikidata Q81483, class allow-list match verified against P17/real-world identity (w-geo-qidcite-0926).View the Source

Jerusalem (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Jerusalem, Lead section

Quote, Associated With: Jerusalem, Lead section

Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains.

View the Source

Open Questions (1 open question)

What is the total area of the Levant?

The Wikipedia article on the Levant consulted for this entity states both a narrow, current-usage definition and a much wider historical one, with no single total area figure attached to either.

What would resolve this A reference giving a summed area for the narrow, current-usage set this atlas adopts: Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey's Hatay province.

Levant (Wikipedia)

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