The
Red Sea 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 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.
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