Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is the body of water that separates Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The Mediterranean Sea is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow passage called the Strait of Gibraltar. The sea is almost completely surrounded by land, on the north by Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Middle East. It covers around 2.5 million square kilometres (0.97 million square miles). Its name was invented in the early Middle Ages from the Latin words Mare Mediterraneum ("in the middle of the land").^[1]

To the east it connects to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, by the Dardanelles and the Bosporus. The Sea of Marmara, which is an inner sea like the Black Sea, is rarely considered as a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The much bigger Black Sea is generally not considered a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The Ancient Greeks called the Mediterranean Sea simply ἡ θάλασσα (hē thálassa; "the Sea") or sometimes ἡ μεγάλη θάλασσα (hē megálē thálassa; "Great Sea"), ἡ ἡμετέρα θάλασσα (hē hēmetérā thálassa; "Our Sea"), or ἡ θάλασσα ἡ καθ'ἡμᾶς (hē thálassa hē kath’hēmâs; "the sea around us").^[2] The Romans called the Mediterranean Sea, Mare Magnum ("Great Sea") or Mare Internum ("Internal Sea") and, starting with the Roman Empire, Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea").

The 163 km (101 mi) long man-made Suez Canal in the southeast connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. The canal is between Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, and was built by the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez from 1859 to 1869.

1. ↑ P. Galesini, Tesoro della lingua volgar, latina, raccolto da monsig. Pietro Galesini protonotaro Apostolico, con diligente osseruatione, & imitatione de i più nobili scrittori antichi latini (Venetiis, 1584).
2. ↑ "The Mediterranean Sea and Ancient Greece".