Mediterranean Sea

Where is Mediterranean Sea?

Part of: Atlantic Ocean.

Countries on its coasts: Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Türkiye, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco.

The story behind it

The Mediterranean is almost a closed sea. In the west, the Strait of Gibraltar is only 14 km wide and links it to the Atlantic Ocean. In the south-east, the Suez Canal, dug by people, leads to the Red Sea. The hot sun makes much more water evaporate than rivers and rain bring in, so the Mediterranean is saltier than the Atlantic. About six million years ago it almost dried up completely! About 5.3 million years ago the Atlantic poured back in and filled it again in less than two years. Today more than 17 000 kinds of sea creatures live here, from fin whales and dolphins to rare monk seals in the Aegean Sea off Greece. The biggest islands are Sicily and Sardinia, and port cities such as Naples, Alexandria and Trieste have traded by ship for thousands of years.

Find it on the globe

Mediterranean 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.