Names of The Levant

Over recorded history, there have been many names of the Levant, a large area in the Middle East. These names have applied to a part or the whole of the Levant. On occasion, two or more of these names have been used at the same time by different cultures or sects. As a natural result, some of the names of the Levant are highly politically charged. Perhaps the least politicized name is Levant itself, which simply means "where the sun rises" or "where the land rises out of the sea", a meaning attributed to the region's easterly location on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

Famous quotes containing the words names of, names and/or levant:

    Tonight there are only the winter stars.
    The sky is no longer a junk-shop,
    Full of javelins and old fire-balls,
    Triangles and the names of girls.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    I come to this land to ride my horse,
    to try my own guitar, to copy out
    their two separate names like sunflowers, to conjure
    up my daily bread, to endure,
    somehow to endure.
    Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

    Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you find the real tinsel underneath.
    —Oscar Levant (1906–1972)