Aegean Sea


The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some. In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn connects to the Black Sea, by the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, respectively. The Aegean Islands are located within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea reaches a maximum depth of 2,639 m to the west of Karpathos. The Thracian Sea and the Sea of Crete are main subdivisions of the Aegean Sea.
The Aegean Islands can be divided into several island groups, including the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, the Sporades, the Saronic islands and the North Aegean Islands, as well as Crete and its surrounding islands. The Dodecanese, located to the southeast, includes the islands of Rhodes, Kos, and Patmos; the islands of Delos and Naxos are within the Cyclades to the south of the sea. Lesbos is part of the North Aegean Islands. Euboea, the second-largest island in Greece, is located in the Aegean, despite being administered as part of Central Greece. Nine out of twelve of the Administrative regions of Greece border the sea, along with the Turkish provinces of Edirne, Çanakkale, Balıkesir, İzmir, Aydın and Muğla to the east of the sea. Various Turkish islands in the sea are Imbros, Tenedos, Cunda Island, and the Foça Islands.
The Aegean Sea has been historically important, especially regarding the civilization of Ancient Greece, which inhabited the area around the coast of the Aegean and the Aegean islands. The Aegean islands facilitated contact between the people of the area and between Europe and Asia. Along with the Greeks, Thracians lived along the northern coasts. The Romans conquered the area under the Roman Empire, and later the Byzantine Empire held it against advances by the First Bulgarian Empire. The Fourth Crusade weakened Byzantine control of the area, and it was eventually conquered by the Ottoman Empire, with the exception of Crete, which was a Venetian colony until 1669. The Greek War of Independence allowed a Greek state on the coast of the Aegean from 1829 onwards. The Ottoman Empire held a presence over the sea for over 500 years until it was replaced by modern Turkey.
The rocks making up the floor of the Aegean are mainly limestone, though often greatly altered by volcanic activity that has convulsed the region in relatively recent geologic times. Of particular interest are the richly colored sediments in the region of the islands of Santorini and Milos, in the south Aegean. Notable cities on the Aegean coastline include Athens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Kavala, and Heraklion in Greece, and İzmir and Bodrum in Turkey.
Several issues concerning sovereignty within the Aegean Sea are disputed between Greece and Turkey. The Aegean dispute has had a large effect on Greece-Turkey relations since the 1970s. Issues include the delimitation of territorial waters, national airspace, exclusive economic zones, and flight information regions.

Name and etymology

The origin of the name Αἰγαῖον πέλαγος or Αἰγαῖος πόντος has been explained by ancient grammarians through various theories:
Figure-Based Origins
  • Aegeus, the father of Theseus, who is said to have drowned himself in the sea. According to the story, Aegeus instructed Theseus to raise white sails if he succeeded in killing the Minotaur, when Theseus forgot to do so, Aegeus believed his son had died and leapt into the sea.
  • Aegaea, an Amazon queen who was said to have perished there.
  • Aegaeon, a sea deity.
  • Poseidon, known by the epithet "Aigaios".
  • Ruler Aigaion. Stephanus of Byzantium wrote that one of the legends is that Karystos was formerly called Aigaia, after the ruler Aigaion, who also lent his name to the Aegean Sea.
  • The Mysian hero Aigaion.
  • Giant Briareus, also called Aigaion.
  • Briareus, a primeval thalassocrat, also known as Aigaion.
Place-Based Origins
  • An island called "Goat island". This island was a sacred place dedicated to Poseidon. Legend has it that no one sleeps there because the god himself appears on the island.
  • A rock, rather than an island, shaped like a goat, called Aex, reputed to have given its name to the sea.
  • A place called Aix in the area of Canai, within Aeolia.
  • Several islands or cities were named Aigai/Aigaia, some authors traced the origin of the sea's name to them, many closely associated with Poseidon.
Linguistic and Interpretive-Based Origins
  • From αἐί γαῖα, meaning "because the land is always in sight".
  • From αἰγίς, meaning a violent squall, referring to the sea's stormy nature.
  • From αἶγες, because the many islands looked like a herd of goats rising from the water.
  • The metaphorical use of αἶγες for large, violent waves, as noted by the Suda, suggesting a link between the sea's name and its fearsome character.
Ancient Greek authors also called it the "Greek Sea".
The sea was known in Latin as Mare Aegaeum while under the control of the Roman Empire. Pliny the Elder write that the Romans used the terms "Macedonian" for the northern part near Macedonia and Thrace provinces, and "Grecian" for the part near Greece itself.
In medieval Latin, the Aegean Sea was known as Egeopelagus, a form attested as late as 1419 in Venetian state papers and derived from the Greek αἰγαιοπέλαγος / αἰγαῖον πέλαγος. The term Arcipelago also appears, for instance in a treaty on 30 June 1268 between the Venetians and the emperor Michael Palaeologus.
This term subsequently gave rise to Archipelago, which in many European languages originally referred specifically to the Aegean Sea.
The terms Greek Archipelago or Grecian Archipelago were also used. Later, as archipelago came to be used increasingly as a generic term for island-studded seas, the terms Greek Archipelago or Grecian Archipelago continued to be usedReference Work /Ægean Sea"> alongside the ancient name, Aegean Sea.
In some South Slavic languages, the Aegean is called White Sea.
The Turkish name for the sea is Ege Denizi, which is derived from the Greek name, and Adalar Denizi meaning "Sea of Islands". In the past, Turks also referred to it as the "White Sea", to differentiate it from the Black Sea.

Geography

The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea and covers about in area, measuring about longitudinally and latitudinal. The sea's maximum depth is, located at a point west of Karpathos. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south, generally from west to east: Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos and Rhodes. The Anatolian peninsula marks the eastern boundary of the sea, while the Greek mainland marks the west. Several seas are contained within the Aegean Sea; the Thracian Sea is a section of the Aegean located to the north, the Icarian Sea to the east, the Myrtoan Sea to the west, while the Sea of Crete is the southern section.
The Greek regions that border the sea, in alphabetical order, are Attica, Central Greece, Central Macedonia, Crete, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, North Aegean, Peloponnese, South Aegean, and Thessaly. The traditional Greek region of Macedonia also borders the sea, to the north.
The Aegean Islands, which almost all belong to Greece, can be divided into seven groups:
  1. Northeastern Aegean Islands, which lie in the Thracian Sea
  2. East Aegean Islands
  3. Northern Sporades
  4. Cyclades
  5. Saronic Islands
  6. Dodecanese
  7. Crete
Many of the Aegean islands or island chains, are geographical extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, and a third extends across the Peloponnese and Crete to Rhodes, dividing the Aegean from the Mediterranean.
The bays and gulfs of the Aegean beginning at the South and moving clockwise include on Crete, the Mirabello, Almyros, Souda and Chania bays or gulfs, on the mainland the Myrtoan Sea to the west with the Argolic Gulf, the Saronic Gulf northwestward, the Petalies Gulf which connects with the South Euboic Sea, the Pagasetic Gulf which connects with the North Euboic Sea, the Thermian Gulf northwestward, the Chalkidiki Peninsula including the Cassandra and the Singitic Gulfs, northward the Strymonian Gulf and the Gulf of Kavala and the rest are in Turkey; Saros Gulf, Edremit Gulf, Dikili Gulf, Gulf of Çandarlı, Gulf of İzmir, Gulf of Kuşadası, Gulf of Gökova, Güllük Gulf.
The Aegean Sea is connected to the Sea of Marmara by the Dardanelles, also known from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont. The Dardanelles are located to the northeast of the sea. It ultimately connects with the Black Sea through the Bosporus strait, upon which lies the city of Istanbul. The Dardanelles and the Bosporus are known as the Turkish Straits.

Extent

According to the International Hydrographic Organization, the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows:
  • On the south: A line running from Cape Aspro in Asia Minor, to Cum Burnù the Northeast extreme of the Island of Rhodes, through the island to Cape Prasonisi, the Southwest point thereof, on to Vrontos Point in Skarpanto , through this island to Castello Point, the South extreme thereof, across to Cape Plaka, through Crete to Agria Grabusa, the Northwest extreme thereof, thence to Cape Apolytares in Antikythera Island, through the island to Psira Rock and across to Cape Trakhili in Kythira Island, through Kythira to the Northwest point and thence to Cape Santa Maria in the Morea.
  • In the Dardanelles: A line joining Kum Kale and Cape Helles.