Aegean Sea

For the oil tanker Aegean Sea, see Aegean Sea oil spill.For the theme of the Byzantine Empire, see Aegean Sea(theme).The Aegean Sea (/din/; Greek:

Topographical and bathymetric map

[eeo pelaos]; Turkish: Ege Denizi or Adalar De-nizi[2]) is an elongated embayment of the MediterraneanSea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas,i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In thenorth, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Seaby the Dardanelles and Bosporus. The Aegean Islands arewithin the sea and some bound it on its southern periph-ery, including Crete and Rhodes.The sea was traditionally known as Archipelago (in

Greek, , meaning chief sea), but in En-glish this words meaning has changed to refer to theAegean Islands and, generally, to any island group.

1 EtymologyIn ancient times, there were various explanations forthe name Aegean. It was said to have been named af-ter the Greek town of Aegae, or after Aegea, a queenof the Amazons who died in the sea, or Aigaion, thesea goat, another name of Briareus, one of the ar-chaic Hecatonchires, or, especially among the Athenians,Aegeus, the father of Theseus, who drowned himself inthe sea when he thought his son had died.A possible etymology is a derivation from the Greekword aiges = "waves" (Hesychius of Alexandria;metaphorical use of (aix) goat), hence wavy sea,cf. also (aigialos = aiges (waves) + hals (sea)),[3]hence meaning sea-shore.The Venetians, who dominated many Greek islands inthe High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the nameArchipelago (Greek for main sea or chief sea), a namethat held on in many European countries until the earlymodern period.In some South Slavic languages the Aegean is often calledWhite Sea ( , Belo more in Serbian and Mace-donian and Byalo more in Bulgarian).[4]

2 GeographyThe Aegean Sea covers about 214,000 square kilometres(83,000 sq mi) in area, and measures about 610 kilome-tres (380 mi) longitudinally and 300 kilometres (190 mi)latitudinally. The seas maximum depth is 3,543 metres(11,624 ft), east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are foundwithin its waters, with the following islands delimiting thesea on the south (generally from west to east): Kythera,Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos and Rhodes.The Aegean Islands, which almost all belong to Greece,can be divided into seven groups:

1. Northeastern Aegean Islands

2. Euboea

3. Northern Sporades

1

2 2 GEOGRAPHY

4. Cyclades5. Saronic Islands (or Argo-Saronic Islands)6. Dodecanese (or Southern Sporades), with the exclu-

sion of Kastellorizo7. Crete

The word archipelago was originally applied specicallyto the Aegean Sea and its islands. Many of the AegeanIslands, or chains of islands, are actually extensions of themountains on the mainland. One chain extends across thesea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos,and a third extends across the Peloponnese and Crete toRhodes, dividing the Aegean from the Mediterranean.The bays and gulfs of the Aegean beginning at the Southand moving clockwise include on Crete, the Mirabelli,Almyros, Souda and Chania bays or gulfs, on the main-land the Myrtoan Sea to the west, the Saronic Gulf north-westward, the Petalies Gulf which connects with theSouth Euboic Sea, the Pagasetic Gulf which connectswith the North Euboic Sea, the Thermian Gulf northwest-ward, the Chalkidiki Peninsula including the Cassandraand the Singitic Gulfs, northward the Strymonian Gulfand the Gulf of Kavala and the rest are in Turkey; SarosGulf, Edremit Gulf, Dikili Gulf, Gulf of andarl, zmirGulf, Kuadas Gulf, Gulf of Gkova, Gllk Gulf.

2.1 ExtentThe International Hydrographic Organization denes thelimits of the Aegean Sea as follows:[5]

On the South. A line running from CapeAspro (2816'E) in Asia Minor, to Cum Burn(Capo della Sabbia) the Northeast extreme ofthe Island of Rhodes, through the island toCape Prasonisi, the Southwest point thereof,on to Vrontos Point (3533'N) in Skarpanto[Karpathos], through this island to CastelloPoint, the South extreme thereof, across toCape Plaka (East extremity of Crete), throughCrete to Agria Grabusa, the Northwest ex-treme thereof, thence to Cape Apolitares inAntikithera Island, through the island to PsiraRock (o the Northwest point) and acrossto Cape Trakhili in Kithera Island, throughKithera to the Northwest point (Cape Karavu-gia) and thence to Cape Santa Maria (3628N2257E / 36.467N 22.950E) in the Morea.In the Dardanelles. A line joining Kum Kale(2611'E) and Cape Helles.

2.2 HydrographyAegean surface water circulates in a counter-clockwisegyre, with hypersaline Mediterranean water moving

Panoramic view of the Santorini caldera, taken from Oia.

Clock Tower in zmir, Turkey.

northward along the west coast of Turkey, before beingdisplaced by less dense Black Sea outow. The denseMediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inow toa depth of 2330 metres (7598 ft), then ows throughthe Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at ve-locities of 515 cm/s. The Black Sea outowmoves west-ward along the northern Aegean Sea, then ows south-wards along the east coast of Greece.[6]

The physical oceanography of the Aegean Sea is con-trolled mainly by the regional climate, the fresh water dis-charge from major rivers draining southeastern Europe,and the seasonal variations in the Black Sea surface wateroutow through the Dardanelles Strait.Analysis[7] of the Aegean during 1991 and 1992 revealed3 distinct water masses:

Aegean Sea Surface Water 4050 metres (130160 ft) thick veneer, with summer temperatures of2126 C and winter temperatures ranging from 10C (50 F) in the north to 16 C (61 F) in the south.

Aegean Sea IntermediateWater Aegean Sea In-

3Traditional street of Lefkes, Paros

termediate Water extends from 4050 m to 200300 metres (660980 ft) with temperatures rangingfrom 1118 C.

Aegean Sea Bottom Water occurring at depthsbelow 5001000mwith a very uniform temperature(1314 C) and salinity (3.913.92%).

3 History

Historic map (1528) of Aegean Sea by Ottoman Turkishgeographer Piri Reis.

The current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC. Be-fore that time, at the peak of the last ice age (c. 16,000

BC) sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, andthere were large well-watered coastal plains instead ofmuch of the northern Aegean. When they were rst oc-cupied, the present-day islands including Milos with itsimportant obsidian production were probably still con-nected to the mainland. The present coastal arrangementappeared c. 7000 BC, with post-ice age sea levels contin-uing to rise for another 3,000 years after that.[8]

The subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece andthe Aegean Sea have given rise to the general termAegeancivilization. In ancient times, the sea was the birthplaceof two ancient civilizations the Minoans of Crete andthe Mycenean Civilization of the Peloponnese.[9]

Satellite view of the Aegean Sea

Later arose the city-states of Athens and Sparta amongmany others that constituted the Athenian Empire andHellenic Civilization. Plato described the Greeks liv-ing round the Aegean like frogs around a pond.[10] TheAegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and theRomans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, theBulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Seljuq Turks,and the Ottoman Empire. The Aegean was the site of theoriginal democracies, and its seaways were the means ofcontact among several diverse civilizations of the EasternMediterranean.

4 Economics and politicsMany of the islands in the Aegean have safe harbours andbays. In ancient times, navigation through the sea waseasier than travelling across the rough terrain of theGreekmainland (and to some extent the coastal areas of Ana-tolia). Many of the islands are volcanic, and marble andiron are mined on other islands. The larger islands havesome fertile valleys and plains. Of the main islands in theAegean Sea, two belong to Turkey Bozcaada (Tenedos

4 7 EXTERNAL LINKS

) and Gkeada (Imbros ); the rest be-long to Greece. Between the two countries, there arepolitical disputes over several aspects of political controlover theAegean space, including the size of territorial wa-ters, air control and the delimitation of economic rightsto the continental shelf.

5 See also Aegean languages List of traditional Greek place names Thracian Sea

6 References[p] ^ The word Aegean is pronounced i-Jee-en.[11]

[1] DRAINAGE BASIN OF THE MEDITERRANEANSEA, UNECE http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/water/blanks/assessment/mediterranean.pdf

[2] Ege Denizinin Orijinal Ad Nedir?, Turkish Naval Forceweb site (in Turkish)

[3] Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-EnglishLexicon, s.v. ""

[4] Zbornik Matice srpske za drutvene nauke: (1961), Vol-umes 28-31, p.74 (Serbian)

[5] Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition (PDF). Inter-national Hydrographic Organization. 1953. Retrieved 7February 2010.

[6] Aksu, A. E., D. Yasar, et al. (1995). LATEGLACIAL-HOLOCENE PALEOCLIMATIC ANDPALEOCEANOGRAPHIC EVOLUTION OF THEAEGEAN SEA MICROPALEONTOLOGICALAND STABLE ISOTOPIC EVIDENCE. MarineMicropaleontology 25(1): 128.

[7] Yagar, D., 1994. Late glacial-Holocene evolution of theAegean Sea. Ph.D. Thesis, Inst. Mar. Sci. Technol.,Dokuz Eyltil Univ., 329 pp. (Unpubl.)

[8] Tjeerd H. van Andel and Judith C. Shackleton (Win-ter 1982). Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic Coastlines ofGreece and the Aegean 9, (4). Journal of Field Archaeol-ogy. pp. 445454.

[9] Tracey Cullen, Aegean Prehistory: A Review (AmericanJournal of Archaeology. Supplement, 1); Oliver Dickin-son, The Aegean Bronze Age (Cambridge World Archae-ology).

[10] John F. Cherry, Despina Margomenou, and Lauren E. Ta-lalay. The familiar phrase giving rise to the title Prehisto-rians Round the Pond: Reections on Aegean Prehistoryas a Discipline.

[11] Aegean islands Denition and More, Merriam-Webster.com, 2011, web:MWaegean.

7 External links Cultural Portal of the Aegean Archipelago. Foun-

dation of the HellenicWorld. Retrieved 9 July 2012.

Coordinates: 39N 25E / 39N 25E

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