Lexington is an independent city in Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, although the two are separate jurisdictions, and is combined with it for statistical purposes by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Lexington is about 57 miles (92 km) east of the West Virginia border and is about 50 miles (80 km) north of Roanoke, Virginia. First settled in 1778, Lexington is best known as the home of the Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University.

The Shenandoah Valley is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia in the United States. The Valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, to the north by the Potomac River, to the south by the James River, and to the Southwest by the New River Valley. The cultural region covers a larger area that includes all of the Valley plus the Virginia Highlands to the west and the Roanoke Valley to the south. It is physiographically located within the Ridge and Valley Province and is a portion of the Great Appalachian Valley.