Nginx.conf -> @ symbol (at sign)

Can anyone tell me the functionality of the @ symbol in the following
statement?

location @joomla {
rewrite ^(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 last;
}

(from http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxJoomla)

Thanks

Posted at Nginx Forum:

Internal location

http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxHttpCoreModule#internal

2009/8/26 jdvogt [email protected]:

Hello!

On Wed, Sep 02, 2009 at 01:08:22AM +0100, Mathew D. wrote:

Internal location

Module ngx_http_core_module

No, it’s “named location”. It is internal, but not only.

Basically, it’s location that preserves original uri on internal
redirects via error_page or try_files.

Maxim D.