Mediterranean Sea
The
Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a completely separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin
mediterraneus, meaning "inland" or "in the middle of the land". It covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km², but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. In oceanography, it is sometimes called the
Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the
European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500 m and the deepest recorded point is 5,267 m in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea. It was an important route for merchants and travellers of ancient times that allowed for trade and cultural exchange between emergent peoples of the region.