Mediterranean Sea

Description

This large sea is sometimes called an inland sea since its connection to the rest of the Atlantic Ocean is only 14.5 kilometers wide (and its connection to the Black Sea even narrower). It is neither shallows sitting on the continental shelf--it obtains a maximum depth of over 1600 meters--nor beyond the continental margins. It is much wider (west east) than tall and beyond the vicinity of Gibraltar it tilts slightly northwest to southeast. There are several constituent seas defined by peninsulas and islands as well as a vast area with no more designation than a loose Western versus Eastern Mediterranean based on which side of the Italian peninsula and Sicily(1) one is. The most enclosed of these lesser seas is the Adriatic, lying between the Italian and Balkan Peninsulas and connected to the Ionian Sea and the bulk of the Mediterranean by the Strait of Otranto. Four of Europe's largest islands--ranking sixth through tenth--lie within the Mediterranean: Sicily¹, Sardinia², Corsica³ and Crete⁴.

The eastern Mediterranean is connected to the Indian ocean by the Suez Canal, although deep draft vessels cannot use it.

The Levant Basin natural gas field province is located east of the island of Cyprus and extends to the Levantine shore east of the sea. There are many named gas fields within it.

Around the sea

north and northwest from the center of the Mediterranean
north from the west of the Eastern Mediterranean
north from the center of the Eastern Mediterranean
northeast from the northeast of the Aegean Sea
northeast from just south of the northeast corner of the Aegean Sea
northeast
east, from the north of the east end
east, from the south of the east end
south from the east of the Mediterranean
south from the center of the Eastern Mediterranean
south from the center of the Mediterranean
southwest from the center of the Mediterranean
south from the center of the Western Mediterranean
south from the west of the Mediterranean
west
northwest from the west of the Mediterranean
north from the west of the Mediterranean

Footnotes

1. Sicilia in Italian.
2. Sardegna in Italian.
3. Corse in French.
4. Kríti in Greek.