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La Mancha is a historical and natural agricultural region in Spain to the south of Madrid, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha and including parts of the provinces of Ciudad Real, Albacete, Cuenca, and Toledo. The name of 'La Mancha' probably comes from the words in antique arabian al-manxa, which means "Land without Water" or "Dry Land". La Mancha is limited by (but includes) the Sierra de Alcaraz, Sierra Morena, Montes de Toledo, and Serranía de Cuenca. The largest plain in the Iberian Peninsula, it is made up of plateaux averaging 500 to 600 metres in altitude, centring on the province of Ciudad Real. The region is watered by the Guadiana, Záncara, Cigüela, and Júcar rivers. The Spanish historian Hosta gives the most accepted description of the limits of La Mancha: "All the territory, plain, arid and dry, that is between Montes de Toledo and the western skirts of Sierra de Cuenca, and from Alcarria to Sierra Morena, including in this denomination the so called Mesa de Ocaña and Quintanar, the comarcas 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 Valencia and Murcia, and to the South, the kingdoms of Córdoba and Jaen, and to the West, the provinces of Extremadura, spreading 53 leagues from East to West and 33 leagues from North to South. Until XVI 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 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 Lamitans, and the second one the southwest part, including Campo de Calatrava and Campo de Montiel, old country of the iberian Oretans." The comarcas of Campo de Montiel and Campo de Calatrava, to the south, are also part of La Mancha, Don Quixote himself started his adventures in Campo de Montiel. Miguel de Cervantes gave international fame to this land and its windmills when he wrote his novel Don Quixote de La Mancha, later the inspiration for Dale Wasserman's musical Man of La Mancha. Some believe that 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. Others disagree. Many experts think of La Mancha as the most proper place for an idealist, since it was, as it is still today, a very harsh and ruthless area. La Mancha has always been an important agricultural zone. Viniculture is important in Valdepeñas and Manzanares, in Ciudad Real and Villarrobledo in Albacete. Other crops include cereals (whence the famous windmills) and saffron. Sheep are raised, providing the famous Manchego cheese. La Mancha includes the Lagunas de Ruidera and Parque Nacional de las Tablas de Daimiel. The climate is continental, with strong fluctuations. Other famous Spaniards like cinema director Pedro Almodóvar, painter Antonio López and actress Sara Montiel were also born in this region.
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