Historical name for the countries along the shores of the eastern Mediterranean Sea .
It was applied to the coastlands of Anatolia and Syria, sometimes extending from Greece to Egypt. The term was often associated with Venetian trading ventures. It was also used as a synonym for the Middle or Near East. In the 16th–17th centuries the term High Levant referred to the Far East (East Asia). The name Levant States was given to the French mandate of Syria and Lebanon after World War I (1914–18).