{{about||the La Mancha wine region|La Mancha (DO)|the Spanish goat|La Mancha goat|the American short-eared goat|American Lamancha goat}}
[[File:LocationLa Mancha.png|thumb|250px|In red, location of La mancha natural region. In dark gray, present-day Castile-La Mancha autonomous community territories not included in historical La Mancha.]]
[[File:Campo de Criptana Molinos de Viento 1.jpg|thumb|250px|Writer [[Miguel de Cervantes]] made La Mancha's [[windmill]]s famous.]]
[[File:Satélite Mancha de Montearagón.JPG|250px|thumb|La Mancha de Montearagón subregion.]]
'''La Mancha''' is a [[natural region|natural]] and [[historical region]] or greater [[Comarcas of Spain|comarca]] located on an arid, fertile, elevated plateau (610 m or 2000 ft.) of central Spain, south of [[Madrid]], stretching between the [[Montes de Toledo]] and the western spurs of the [[Serrania de Cuenca]]. It is bounded on the south by the [[Sierra Morena]] and on the north by the [[La Alcarria]] region. La Mancha includes portions of the modern provinces of [[Cuenca (province)|Cuenca]], [[Toledo (province)|Toledo]], and [[Albacete]], and most of the [[Ciudad Real]] province. La Mancha historical comarca constitutes the southern portion of [[Castile-La Mancha]] [[autonomous community]] and makes up most of the present-day administrative region.
==Name==
The name "La Mancha" is probably derived from the Arab word المنشا ''al-mansha'', meaning "the dry land" or "wilderness". The name of the city of [[Almansa]] in [[Albacete]] also has the same origin. Broadly, it spans the elevated plateau of central Spain, stretching from the mountains of [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]] to the western spurs of the hills of [[Cuenca, Spain|Cuenca]], and bounded to the South by the [[Sierra Morena]] and to the North by the [[Alcarria]] region.
==Geography==
[[Image:Meseta herd.jpg|thumb|left|350px|Pastures and cattle in La Mancha.]]
The largest plain in the [[Iberian Peninsula]], La Mancha is made up of [[plateau]] averaging 500 to 600 metres in altitude (although it reaches 900 metres in Campo de Montiel and other parts), centering on the province of Ciudad Real. The region is watered by the [[Guadiana]], Jabalón, [[Záncara]], Cigüela, and [[Júcar]] rivers. The Spanish historian [[Hosta]] gives the most accepted description of the limits of the geographical La Mancha plain:
[[File:Paisaje La Mancha.jpg|thumb|250px|Landscape of the fields in La Mancha.]]
All the territory, plain, arid and dry, that is between [[Montes de Toledo]] and the western skirts of [[Serranía de Cuenca]], and from [[Alcarria]] to [[Sierra Morena]], including in this denomination the [[Mesa de Ocaña]] high plateau and [[Quintanar]], the [[comarca]]s of [[Belmonte]] and [[San Clemente]] and the old territories of the military Orders of Santiago, San Juan and Calatrava, with all the [[Sierra de Alcaraz]]; being its limits to the North the [[Tajo river]] and the part called properly [[Castilla la Nueva]], to the East the kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Valencia|Valencia]] and [[Murcia]], and to the South, the kingdoms of [[Caliph of Córdoba|Córdoba]] and [[Jaén, Spain|Jaén]], and to the West, the provinces of [[Extremadura]], spreading 53 leagues from East to West and 33 leagues from North to South. Until the 16th century, the east part was also called '''Mancha de Monte-Aragón''', because of the name of the mountains that were the old border between La Mancha and the Kingdom of Valencia, and to the rest simply Mancha. Afterwards, La Mancha was also divided into Mancha Alta and Mancha Baja, according to the level and flow of its rivers, including the first one the northeast part, from [[Villarubia de los Ojos]] until Belmonte, country of the old [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberian]] [[Lamitans]], and the second one the southwest part, including [[Campo de Calatrava]] and [[Campo de Montiel]], old country of the Iberian [[Oretans]].
==Climate==
The climate is continental, with strong fluctuations. Agriculture (wheat, barley, oats, wine grapes, olives) is the primary economic activity, but it is severely restricted by the harsh environmental conditions.
==Culture==
[[File:Aquila adalberti.jpg|thumb||The [[Spanish Imperial Eagle]] can be found mostly in the region of La Mancha.|250px]]
Culturally, La Mancha includes the Sierra de Alcaraz, northern [[Sierra Morena]], Montes de Toledo and Serranía de Cuenca, parts of [[Tajo]] river valley, and it is administrative divided among the comarcas of Campo de Montiel and Campo de Calatrava to the south—[[Don Quixote]] himself starts his adventures in Campo de Montiel—the eastern Mancha Alta, the central Mancha Baja, the western Valle de Alcudia, and Parameras de Ocaña y [[Manchuela]] to the north.
The inhabitants have a nickname ''Manchegans'' derived from the namesake of La Manch-a/e.
==Agriculture==
La Mancha has always been an important agricultural zone. [[Viniculture]] is important in [[Tomelloso]], [[Socuéllamos]], [[Valdepeñas]] and [[Manzanares, Ciudad Real|Manzanares]], in [[Ciudad Real (province)|Ciudad Real]] and [[Villarrobledo]] in [[Albacete (province)|Albacete]]. Other crops include cereals (hence the famous [[windmill]]s) and [[saffron]]. Sheep are raised and bred, providing the famous [[Manchego cheese]], as are goats, including the [[La Mancha goat]], one of the assumed progenitors of the [[American La mancha goat]]. La Mancha includes two National Parks, [[Tablas de Daimiel National Park|Las Tablas de Daimiel]] and Cabañeros, and one Natural Park, Las Lagunas de Ruidera.
==People==
Famous Spaniards like the cinema directors [[Pedro Almodóvar]] and [[José Luis Cuerda]], painters [[Antonio López García|Antonio López]] and his uncle Antonio López Torres, footballer [[Andrés Iniesta]], music band [[Angelus Apatrida]] and actress [[Sara Montiel]] were born in La Mancha.
==La Mancha and Cervantes==
[[Miguel de Cervantes]] gave international fame to this land and its [[windmill]]s when he wrote his novel ''[[Don Quixote|Don Quixote de La Mancha]]''. Cervantes was making fun of this region, using a pun; a "mancha" was also a stain, as on one's honor, and thus a hilariously inappropriate homeland for a dignified knight-errant. Translator [[John Ormsby]] believed that Cervantes chose it because it was/is the most ordinary, prosaic, anti-romantic, and therefore unlikely place from which a chivalrous, romantic hero could originate, making Quixote seem even more absurd.
Several film versions of ''Don Quixote'' have actually been filmed largely in La Mancha. However, at least two of the most famous - the 1957 Russian film version, and the screen version of ''Man of La Mancha'', were not. The 1957 film was shot in [[Crimea]], while ''[[Man of La Mancha (film)|Man of La Mancha]]'' was filmed in Italy. [[G.W. Pabst]]'s 1933 version of Cervantes's novel was shot in [[Alpes-de-Haute-Provence]].
==Popular culture==
*La Mancha appears in the [[video game]] ''[[Tom Clancy's EndWar]]'' as a possible battlefield, where it houses a major [[wind power]] complex for a future [[federal Europe|European Federation]].
==External links==
{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Mancha, La}}
*[http://www.latrovadelllano.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=7 Folk music from La Mancha]
{{coord missing|Spain}}