Laravel is a PHP web framework first released in 2011. It is inspired by CodeIgnitor and Django and uses Symfony components. The framework uses conventions over configuration, an MVC architecture pattern, Eloquent ORM for databases, Artisan CLI, authentication support, validation, caching and more. Key concepts include request lifecycle, service container, service providers, and facades. Features include routing, middleware, controllers, resource controllers, views with Blade templating, asset bundling and a large ecosystem.