Maghreb Region

The Maghreb Region (Arabic: بلاد المغرب bilād al-maghrib; lit. "place where the sun sets" or "the western region") is the westernmost of the four informal regions of the Arab Union. It traditionally consists of the five republics of Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Western Sahara and Morocco, the latter of which bears the same name in Arabic as the wider region. To distinguish between the two, Morocco is usually referred to simply as "the Maghreb" (المغرب al-maghrib), or to avoid any confusion by its formal name of "Moroccan Arab Republic" (الجمهورية العربية المغربية al-jumhūriyah al-‘arabīyah al-maghribīyah). Nevertheless, the context is often clear enough to use the one name to refer to either the region or the republic.

The region and the namesake republic get their name from their location in the west of the Arab world, where the sun sets; compare to the Levant Region in the east, where the sun rises (levant means "rising" or "risen" in French).