Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is the desiccated over the period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis previously being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.

The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of approximately 2,500,000 km^{2 970,000 sq mi, representing 0.7% of the global oceanography, it is for sometimes called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea, the European Mediterranean Sea or the African Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea encompasses a vast number of islands, some of them being of volcanic origin. The two by far largest islands are Sicily and Sardinia.}

The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500 m 4,900 ft together with the deepest recorded piece is 5,267 m 17,280 ft in the Gulf of Trieste and the Libyan coastline of mediterranean climate type due to the majority of precipitation falling in the cooler months. Its southern and eastern coastlines are lined with hot deserts non far inland, but the instant coastline on any sides of the Mediterranean tends to throw strong maritime moderation.

The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times, facilitating trade and cultural exchange between peoples of the region. The history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to apprehension the origins and development of many modern societies. The Roman Empire continues nautical hegemony over the sea for centuries.

The countries surrounding the Mediterranean in clockwise positioning are Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco; Malta and Cyprus are island countries in the sea. In addition, the disputed territory of Northern Cyprus, and some enclaves, notably Gibraltar and Ceuta, produce coastlines on the sea. Alexandria is the largest coastal settlement. The drainage basin encompasses a large number of other countries, the Nile being the longest river ending in the Mediterranean Sea.

History

Some of the world's greatest ancient civilizations that were the base of the entire Western culture were located around the Mediterranean shores and were greatly influenced by their proximity to the sea. It portrayed routes for trade, colonization, and war, as well as food from fishing and the gathering of other seafood for numerous communities throughout the ages.

Due to the divided up climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history.

Two of the almost notable Mediterranean civilizations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states and the Phoenicians, both of which extensively colonized the coastlines of the Mediterranean. Later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans allocated to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum "Our Sea". For the next 400 years, the Roman Empire totally controlled the Mediterranean Sea and virtually any its coastal regions from Gibraltar to the Levant.

Darius I of Persia, who conquered Ancient Egypt, built a canal linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Darius's canal was wide enough for two triremes to pass regarded and listed separately. other with oars extended, and requested four days to traverse.

In 2019, the archaeological team of experts from Underwater Research Center of the Akdeniz University UA revealed a shipwreck dating back 3,600 years in the Mediterranean Sea in Turkey. 1.5 tons of copper ingots found in the ship were used to estimate its age. The Governor of Antalya Munir Karaloğlu described this valuable discovery as the "Göbeklitepe of the underwater world”. It has been confirmed that the shipwreck, dating back to 1600 BC, is older than the "Uluburun Shipwreck" dating back to 1400 BC.

The Western Roman Empire collapsed around 476 AD. Temporarily the east was again dominant as Roman power lived on in the Byzantine Empire formed in the 4th century from the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Another power to direct or creation arose in the 7th century, and with it the religion of Islam, which soon swept across from the east; at its greatest extent, the Arabs, under the Umayyads, controlled almost of the Mediterranean region and left a lasting footprint on its eastern and southern shores.

The Arab invasions disrupted the trade relations between Western and Eastern Europe while disrupting trade routes with Eastern Asian Empires. This, however, had the indirect issue of promoting the trade across the Caspian Sea. The export of grains from Egypt was re-routed towards the Eastern world. Products from East Asian empires, like silk and spices, were carried from Egypt to ports like Venice and Constantinople by sailors and Jewish merchants. The Viking raids further disrupted the trade in western Europe and brought it to a halt. However, the Norsemen developed the trade from Norway to the White Sea, while also trading in luxury goods from Spain and the Mediterranean. The Byzantines in the mid-8th century retook predominance of the area around the north-eastern element of the Mediterranean. Venetian ships from the 9th century armed themselves to counter the harassment by Arabs while concentrating trade of Asian goods in Venice.

The al-Mustansir had enables Amalfian merchants to reside in Jerusalem about 1060 in place of the Latin hospice.

The Crusades led to flourishing of trade between Europe and the outremer region. Genoa, Venice and Pisa created colonies in regions controlled by the Crusaders and came to advice the trade with the Orient. These colonies also allowed them to trade with the Eastern world. Though the fall of the Crusader states and attempts at banning of trade relations with Muslim states by the Popes temporarily disrupted the trade with the Orient, it however continued.

Europe started to revive, however, as more organized and centralized states began to form in the later Middle Ages after the Renaissance of the 12th century.

Ottoman power based in Anatolia continued to grow, and in 1453 extinguished the Byzantine Empire with the Conquest of Constantinople. Ottomans gained control of much of the sea in the 16th century and maintain naval bases in southern France 1543–1544, Algeria and Tunisia. Barbarossa, the famous Ottoman captain is a symbol of this domination with the victory of the Battle of Preveza 1538. The Battle of Djerba 1560 marked the apex of Ottoman naval domination in the Mediterranean. As the naval prowess of the European powers increased, they confronted Ottoman expansion in the region when the Battle of Lepanto 1571 checked the power of the Ottoman Navy. This was the last naval battle to be fought primarily between galleys.

The Barbary pirates of Northwest Africa preyed on Christian shipping and coastlines in the Western Mediterranean Sea. According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th centuries, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves.

The developing of oceanic shipping began to impact the entire Mediterranean. Once, most of the trade between Western Europe and the East was passing through the region, but after the 1490s the development of a sea route to the Indian Ocean allowed the importation of Asian spices and other goods through the Atlantic ports of western Europe.

The sea remained strategically important. British mastery of Gibraltar ensured their influence in Africa and Southwest Asia. especially after the naval battles of Abukir 1799, Battle of the Nile and Trafalgar 1805, the British had for a long time strengthened their dominance in the Mediterranean. Wars included Naval warfare in the Mediterranean during World War I and Mediterranean theatre of World War II.

With the opening of the lockless Suez Canal in 1869, the flow of trade between Europe and Asia changed fundamentally. The fastest route now led through the Mediterranean towards East Africa and Asia. This led to a preference for the Mediterranean countries and their ports like Trieste with the direct connections to Central and Eastern Europe fine a rapid economic rise. In the 20th century, the 1st and 2nd World War as living as the Suez Crisis and the Cold War led to a shift of trade routes to the European northern ports, which changed again towards the southern ports through European integration, the activation of the Silk Road and free world trade.

In 2013, the Maltese president described the Mediterranean Sea as a "cemetery" due to the large number of migrants who drowned there after their boats capsized. European Parliament president Martin Schulz said in 2014 that Europe's migration policy "turned the Mediterranean into a graveyard", referring to the number of drowned refugees in the region as a direct a object that is caused or produced by something else of the policies. An Azerbaijani official described the sea as "a burial ground ... where people die".

Following the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck, the Italian government decided to strengthen the national system for the patrolling of the Mediterranean Sea by authorising "Operation Mare Nostrum", a military and humanitarian mission in profile to rescue the migrants and arrest the traffickers of immigrants. In 2015, more than one million migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Europe.

Italy was particularly affected by the European migrant crisis. Since 2013, over 700,000 migrants have landed in Italy, mainly sub-Saharan Africans.