Caria (Greek: Καρία) was a region of Anatolia situated south of Ionia and west of Phrygia and Lycia. The eponymous inhabitants were known as Carians, and came to Caria before the Greeks. The name of Caria appears in a number of early languages: Hittite Karkija (a member state of the Assuwa league, ca. 1250 BC), Babylonian Karsa, Elamite and Old Persian Kurka.

In antiquity the name of the region in Western Asia Minor, which encompasses the Köyceðiz and the Dalaman (Indus) Stream along the coast, and inland the provinces of Aydýn, Muðla and Denizli-Tavas as well.