Washington and Lee University (Washington and Lee or W&L) is a private liberal arts university in Lexington, Virginia, (Rockbridge County) of the United States.

Washington and Lee's 325-acre campus sits at the edge of Lexington in Rockbridge County and abuts the campus of the Virginia Military Institute (founded 1839) in the Shenandoah Valley region along the Shenandoah River of the western part of the Commonwealth of Virginia between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Allegheny Mountains in the eastern ranges of the Appalachian Mountains. The campus is approximately 50 miles (80 km) northeast from Roanoke, 140 miles (225 km) west from the state capital of Richmond, and 180 miles (290 km) inland southwest from the national capital at Washington, D.C..