Mediterranean Sea

"The Mediterranean Sea is the Pearl of Europe, or as you know it, also the Pearl of Africa, and/or the Pearl of the Middle East. Despite this terrible crisis, I knew that it would come when it comes to this terrible war."

--Su Ji-Hoon, The Mediterranean Crisis

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. Although the sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually identified as a separate body of water. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.

The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning "inland" or "in the middle of land" (from medius, "middle" and terra, "land"). It covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2 (965,000 sq mi), but its connection to the Atlantic (the Strait of Gibraltar) is only 14 km (8.7 mi) wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar and Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa. In oceanography, it is sometimes called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere.

The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500 m (4,900 ft) and the deepest recorded point is 5,267 m (17,280 ft) in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia, and in the south by Africa. It is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, on the southwestern coast of Turkey, is approximately 4,000 km (2,500 miles). The sea's average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km (500 miles). The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara (connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea), has a surface area of approximately 2,510,000 square km (970,000 square miles).

The sea was an important route for merchants and travellers of ancient times that allowed for trade and cultural exchange between emergent peoples of the region. The history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies.

The countries with coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea are Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Monaco, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri and Dhekelia have coastlines on the sea.

Name
The term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning "amid the earth (note: earth in the sense "soil", not Planet Earth)" or "between land" (medi-; adj. medius, -um -a "middle, between" + terra f., "land, earth"): as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios (Μεσόγειος), is similarly from μέσο, "between" + γη, "land, earth"). It can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia (Μεσοποταμία), meaning "between rivers."

The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names. For example, the Carthaginians called it the "Syrian Sea" and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea"), and occasionally Mare Internum and in Greek as the "Mare Magnum," meaning "Great Sea."

In ancient Syrian texts, Phoenician epics and in the Hebrew Bible, it was primarily known as the "Great Sea" (הַיָּם הַגָּדוֹל, Hayam Hagadol, Numbers 34:6,7; Joshua 1:4, 9:1, 15:47; Ezekiel 47:10,15,20), or simply "The Sea" (1 Kings 5:9; comp. 1 Macc. 14:34, 15:11); however, it has also been called the "Hinder Sea" (הַיָּם הָאַחֲרוֹן), due to its location on the west coast of Greater Syria or the Holy Land, and therefore behind a person facing the east, sometimes translated as "Western Sea," (Deut. 11:24; Joel 2:20). Another name was the "Sea of the Philistines" (יָם פְּלִשְׁתִּים, Exod. 23:31), from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites.

In Modern Hebrew, it has been called Hayam Hatikhon (הַיָּם הַתִּיכוֹן), "the Middle Sea," reflecting the Sea's name in ancient Greek (Mesogeios), Latin Mare Internum (Inner Sea) or Mare Nostrum (Our Sea), and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East (Mediterranean, etc.).

Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as Al-Baḥr [Al-Abyaḍ] al-Mutawassiṭ (البحر [الأبيض] المتوسط), "the [White] Middle Sea," while in Islamic and older Arabic literature, it was referenced as Baḥr al-Rūm (بحر الروم), or "the Roman/Byzantine Sea."