Mediterranean Sea, the sea between Europe, Africa, and southwestern Asia. For centuries it was the center of Western civilization. Its name, from the Latin mediusand terra,means “middle of the world.” The Romans sometimes called it Mare Nostrum (“Our Sea”).
The Mediterranean is connected with the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar; with the Black Sea by the Dardanelles. Sea of Marmara, and Bosporus; and with the Red Sea by the Suez Canal and Gulf of Suez. The sea covers some 970,000 square miles (2,500,000 km2). Its greatest width (north-south) is 800 miles (1,300 km); greatest length, 2,700 miles (4,350 km). The maximum depth (off southwestern Greece) is 16,800 feet (5,121 m).
The Mediterranean has an irregular, deeply indented coastline, especially in the north, where the Italian and Balkan peninsulas jut southward from the main body of Europe. Narrow plains backed by mountains or steep, rocky cliffs mark much of the coast..
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