Definition of Mediterranean Sea

Like any area on the planet, the Mediterranean Sea can be studied from various perspectives. Among them, we can highlight the geographical, geopolitics and the historical one.

Specific geographic data of interest

The surface of the Mediterranean exceeds 2.5 million square kilometers, a surface similar to that of territory from Argentina. Regarding its dimensions, from east to west it has 4000 km, from north to south 800 km and more than 46,000 km of coast.

Its average depth is 1,370 m and its salinity level is 3.8%. The Nile, Ebro, Rhone and Po rivers are the most important that flow into its waters.

Although the Mediterranean Sea is spoken of as a single sea surface, in reality there are several seas in its interior, such as the Ionian Sea, the Sea of ​​Marmara, the Alboran Sea or the Aegean Sea, among others.

In its western part, the coastal countries of the Mediterranean include France, Spain and Italy, on the coast Eastern are Croatia, Slovenia or Greece and in the Asian part are Turkey, Lebanon and Syria, among others.

Geopolitical interest of the Mediterranean

The coasts of this sea connect with three continents: Africa, Europe and Asia. This fact already highlights its strategic value at the international level.

In the present some territories bathed by the Mediterranean have a geopolitical importance of the first order. In this sense, it must be remembered that on the African coasts of the Mediterranean, thousands of sub-Saharan Africans try to reach the continent and, on the other hand, thousands of refugees from the Syrian war are in refugee camps on the coasts of Turkey and Greece.

It should not be forgotten that the Strait of Gibraltar at the western end is the natural outlet to the Atlantic, which is why it is a fundamental territory in international navigation.

From a tourist point of view, the Mediterranean coasts attract millions of tourists from all over the world.

The Mediterranean is considered the cradle of various civilizations

In this region arose the neolithic in the western world and later, several civilizations appeared: the Sumerian, the Assyrian, the Hittite, the Phoenician, the Greek and the Roman. All of them make up the germ of the Western world as we know it.

From the perspective religious, in the Mediterranean the three monotheistic religions have coexisted: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Photos: Fotolia - paul prescott / disq