[el-che] 
| a city in E Spain. 122,663. |
| El·che (ěl'chě) A city of southeast Spain southwest of Alicante. An ancient Roman colony, it was held by the Moors from the 8th to the 13th century. Population: 222,000. |
Elche
city, Alicante provincia (province), in the comunidad autonoma (autonomous community) of Valencia, southeastern Spain, situated on the Vinalopo River just south of Alicante city. Of Iberian origin, the site was inhabited by Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans (who named the town Ilici). Under Arab domination the name was changed to Elx, whence Elche. A well-known example of 5th-century-BC Iberian art, a polychrome stone statue known as La dama de Elche ("The Lady of Elche"), was found on a nearby archaeological site in 1897; a mosaic floor with Latin inscriptions was also uncovered there in 1959. A local custom-declared a national artistic monument in 1931-is observed annually on August 14-15 in the 17th-century church of Santa Maria with performances of the medieval drama Misterio de Elche, representing the Assumption of the Virgin
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