Sea · India, Pakistan, Iran
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is part of the northern Indian Ocean. It lies between the Arabian Peninsula in the west and India in the east, and ships have crossed it for thousands of years.
Picture credit: iMahesh (CC BY-SA 4.0) · FahamidhaJabeen (CC BY-SA 4.0) · King Eliot (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Arabian Sea?
Part of: Indian Ocean.
Countries on its coasts: India, Pakistan, Iran, Oman, Yemen, Somalia, the Maldives.
The story behind it
For thousands of years, the Arabian Sea has been a busy road for ships. Already in very early times, sailing boats carried goods along its coasts. Arab and Persian seafarers used the monsoon winds to cross it and wrote down detailed sailing guides. In Roman times it was called the Erythraean Sea. The biggest river that flows into it is the Indus. Among its largest islands are Socotra, which belongs to Yemen, Masirah in Oman and Astola in Pakistan. Big port cities such as Mumbai in India and Karachi in Pakistan lie on its shores. The sea is home to more than 1 200 kinds of fish, and fishers catch tuna and sardines here. In 2013 something surprising happened: after a strong earthquake, a small island of mud suddenly rose from the sea near the port of Gwadar in Pakistan. It did not last long.
Find it on the globe
Arabian Sea is there as a name written across its water — tap the water and its card opens. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
Questions children ask
How big is the Arabian Sea?
The Arabian Sea covers about 3.86 million km². It reaches from the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula in the west to India in the east.
Which countries border the Arabian Sea?
Which river flows into the Arabian Sea?
The biggest is the Indus. Other rivers, such as the Narmada and the Tapti, reach it through the Gulf of Khambhat in India.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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