La Mancha in the context of "Natural region"

Don Quixote, the full title being The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and the first modern novel. The novel has been labelled by many well-known authors as the "best novel of all time" and the "best and most central work in world literature". Don Quixote is also one of the most-translated books in the world and one of the best-selling novels of all time.

The plot revolves around the adventures of a member of the lowest nobility, a hidalgo from La Mancha named Alonso Quijano, who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his mind and decides to become a knight-errant (caballero andante) to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the name Don Quixote de la Mancha. He recruits as his squire a simple farm labourer, Sancho Panza, who brings an earthy wit to Don Quixote's lofty rhetoric. In the first part of the book, Don Quixote does not see the world for what it is and prefers to imagine that he is living out a knightly story meant for the annals of all time. However, as Salvador de Madariaga pointed out in his Guía del lector del Quijote (1972 [1926]), referring to "the Sanchification of Don Quixote and the Quixotization of Sancho", as "Sancho's spirit ascends from reality to illusion, Don Quixote's declines from illusion to reality".

The province of Ciudad Real (Spanish: [θjuˈðað reˈal] ) is a province in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Cuenca, Albacete, Jaén, Córdoba, Badajoz, and Toledo. It is partly located in the old natural region of La Mancha. Its capital is Ciudad Real. It is the third largest province by area in all of Spain, after Cáceres and Badajoz. The historic comarca Campo de Calatrava is located in the center of the province.

The Guadiana River (/ˌɡwɑːdiˈɑːnə/ GWAH-dee-AH-nə, US also /ɡwɑːdˈjɑːnə/ gwahd-YAH-nə, Spanish: [ɡwaˈðjana], Portuguese: [ɡwɐdiˈɐnɐ]) is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from la Mancha and the eastern portion of Extremadura to the southern provinces of the Algarve; the river and its tributaries flow from east to west, then south through Portugal to the border towns of Vila Real de Santo António (Portugal) and Ayamonte (Spain), where it flows into the Gulf of Cádiz. With a course that covers a distance of 829 kilometres (515 mi), it is the fourth-longest in the Iberian Peninsula, and its hydrological basin extends over an area of approximately 68,000 square kilometres (26,000 sq mi) (the majority of which lies within Spain).

Castilians (Spanish: castellanos) are the inhabitants of the historical region of Castile in central Spain. However, the boundaries of the region are disputed.

Not all people in the regions of the medieval Kingdom of Castile or Crown of Castile think of themselves as Castilian. For that reason, the exact limits of what is Castilian today are disputed. The western parts of Castile and León (that is, the Region of León) and Cantabria, La Rioja, the Community of Madrid and La Mancha are often also included in the definition, but that is controversial for historical reasons and for the strong sense of unique cultural identity of those regions. The Province of Albacete and Ciudad Real are also often included. As an ethnicity, Castilians are most commonly associated with the sparsely populated inner plateau of the Iberian peninsula, which is split into two by the Sistema Central mountain range in northern or 'Old Castile' and southern or 'New Castile'.

The Guadiana River (/ˌɡwɑːdiˈɑːnə/ GWAH-dee-AH-nə, US also /ɡwɑːdˈjɑːnə/ gwahd-YAH-nə, Spanish: [ɡwaˈðjana], Portuguese: [ɡwɐdiˈɐnɐ]) is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from la Mancha and the eastern portion of Extremadura to the southern provinces of the Algarve; the river and its tributaries flow from east to west, then south through Portugal to the border towns of Vila Real de Santo António (Portugal) and Ayamonte (Spain), where it flows into the Gulf of Cádiz. With a course that covers a distance of 829 kilometres (515 mi), it is the fourth-longest in the Iberian Peninsula, and its hydrological basin extends over an area of approximately 68,000 square kilometres (26,000 mi) (the majority of which lies within Spain).