Castile-La Mancha

Castile-La Mancha is a region of central Spain where the fictional Don Quixote fought imaginary windmills. Those windmills can still be seen today. The climate of the region is desert-like, and the dialect of Spanish is very similar to the Spanish spoken in Madrid.

The history of Castile-La Mancha has been significant. Its origin lay in the Muslim period between the 8th and 14th century. Castile-La Mancha was the region of many historical battles between Christian crusaders and Muslim forces during the period from 1000 to the 14th century (until the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, the aftermath of which assured the Castilian domination of the region with the decline of the Almohad Dynasty). It was also the region where the unification of Castile and Aragon in 1492 under Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand was created.