 | Red Sea: Encyclopedia - Red Sea
Red Sea
(Red Sea is also the name of two states, one in Sudan, and one in Egypt)
The Red Sea (Arabic البحر الأحمر Baḥr al-Aḥmar, al-Baḥru l-’Aḥmar; Hebrew ים סוף Yam Suf; Tigrigna ቀይሕ ባሕሪ QeyH baHri) is a gulf or basin of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden. In the north is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez (leading to the Suez Canal). The sea is roughly 1900 km long and at its widest is over 300 km. The sea floor has a maximum depth of 2,500 m in the central median trench and an average depth of 500 m, but it also has extensive shallow shelves, noted for their marine life and corals. The sea has a surface area of roughly 438,000 or 450,000 km². The sea is the habitat of over 1000 invertebrate species and 200 soft and hard corals. The sea occupies a part of the Great Rift Valley. The Red Sea is the world's most northern tropical sea.
Red Sea - Name
The sea was called the "Arabian Gulf" in most European sources up to the 20th century. This was derived from older Greek sources. Herodotus, Straban and Ptolemy all call the waterway "Arabicus Sinus", while reserving the term "Sea of Erythrias" (Red Sea) for the waters around the southern Arabian Peninsula, now known as Indian Ocean.
The name of the sea does not indicate the colour of the water. It may signify the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured cyanobacteria Trichodesmium erythraeum near the water surface. Some suggest that it refers to the mineral-rich red mountains nearby which are called "הרי אדום" (harei edom). Edom, meaning "ruddy complexion", is also an alternative Hebrew name for the red-faced biblical character Esau (brother of Jacob), and the nation descended from him, the Edomites, which in turn provides yet another possible origin for Red Sea.
There is also speculation that the name Red Sea came from a mistranslation of what should have been the Reed Sea in the Biblical story of the Exodus. The Sea of Reeds (in Hebrew Yâm-Sûph) is often mistranslated as the "Red Sea".
One hypothesis is the name comes from the Himarites, a local group whose own name means "red." Another theory favored by some modern scholars is the name "red" is referring to the direction "south," the same way the Black Sea's name may refer to "north." The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to points on the compass.
Passage of Red Sea, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
Red Sea - Physical properties
Surface water temperatures remain relatively constant at 21-25°C and temperature and visibility remain good to around 200 m, but the sea is known for its strong winds and tricky local currents. The sea was created by the division of Africa from the Arabian peninsula, a movement which began around 30 million years ago. The sea is still widening and there are small volcanic features in the deeper parts, it is considered that the sea will become an ocean in time (as proposed in the model of Tuzo Wilson).
Sometimes during the Tertiary period the Bab el Mandeb was closed and the Red Sea was an empty hot dry salt-floored sink.
Red Sea - Tourism
The sea is known for its spectacular dive sites such as Ras Mohammed, SS Thistlegorm (ship wreck), Elphinstone, The Brothers and Rocky Island in Egypt, and less known sites in Sudan such as Sanganeb, Abington, Angarosh and Shaab Rumi (see photo above).
The Red Sea was "discovered" as a diving destination by Hans Hass in the 1950s, and by Jacques-Yves Cousteau later.
Red Sea - Bordering countries
Bordering countries are:
- Northern shore:
- Western shore:
- Eastern shore:
- Southern shore:
Red Sea - Towns and cities
Towns and cities on the Red Sea coast include: Assab, Massawa, Hala'ib, Port Sudan, Port Safaga, Hurghada, El Suweis, Sharm el Sheikh, Eilat, Aqaba, Dahab, Jeddah, Al Hudaydah, Marsa Alam.
See also
- Passage of Red Sea
- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
Categories: Geography of Egypt | Geography of Israel | Great Rift Valley | Indian Ocean | Seas | Geography of Africa
Other related archivesAfrica, Al Hudaydah, Aqaba, Arabian Peninsula, Arabian peninsula, Arabic, Asia, Assab, Bab el Mandeb, Biblical, Black Sea, Dahab, Djibouti, Edomites, Egypt, Eilat, Eritrea, Esau, Geography of Africa, Geography of Egypt, Geography of Israel, Great Rift Valley, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Aqaba, Gulf of Suez, Hala'ib, Hans Hass, Hebrew, Herodotus, Hurghada, Indian Ocean, Israel, Jacob, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Jeddah, Jordan, Marsa Alam, Massawa, Passage of Red Sea, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Port Safaga, Port Sudan, Ptolemy, Red Sea, SS Thistlegorm, Saudi Arabia, Sea of Reeds, Seas, Sharm el Sheikh, Sinai Peninsula, Somalia, Straban, Sudan, Suez Canal, Tertiary, Tigrigna, Trichodesmium, Tuzo Wilson, Yemen, corals, cyanobacteria, dive, gulf, invertebrate, mineral, mountains, sites, the Exodus, the world's most northern, volcanic features, °C
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Red Sea", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
