Maven Repositories
Apache Maven uses repositories to store artifacts. Your dependencies are being downloaded from repositories, and artifacts you build are being stored (installed, uploaded) into repositories as well. This is one of the fundamental concepts of Maven since its inception: Maven command line tool and Maven Repositories were mold together and developed since the beginning of Maven project itself.
See also the Introduction to Repositories and Repository Layout.
As you may know, Maven addresses artifacts using artifact coordinates. The artifact coordinates uniquely describe the artifact you are referring to, but does not tell anything about its source (or origin). This is where Maven Repositories come into picture, that holds the artifacts laid out (published) according to Maven Repository Layout. And this is where the circle closes: artifacts, being laid out in defined layout, consumed and published by Maven.
Sections: