You can see where the Red Sea is on the map above. The sea is located between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa in a tectonic basin. Through the Suez Canal in the north the sea connects with the Mediterranean, in the south the sea exits into the Indian Ocean.

Of all the seas, the Red Sea is the saltiest, yes, surprisingly, but it is believed that it is saltier than even the Dead Sea. This happens due to the fact that the Dead Sea is closed, and the Red Sea has an influx of salt water through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait where it connects with the Indian Ocean and at the same time, in a hot climate, it has evaporation from the surface of about 2000 mm per year with precipitation of only about 100 millimeters .

A sea into which no river flows

In addition to the hot climate, the Red Sea has one more feature - not a single river flows into the sea, but it is the rivers that carry fresh water to the seas. These are the main factors due to which the Red Sea is considered the saltiest sea in the world; in one year, 1000 cubic kilometers more water is introduced into the Red Sea than flows out of it.

In one liter sea ​​water The Red Sea contains about 41 grams of salt. Although in the depths of the sea there are places where there are more than 260 grams of salt per liter. The maximum depth of the sea, according to various estimates, does not exceed three kilometers, officially 2211 meters.

Where is the Red Sea

The Red Sea is inland sea Indian Ocean and is located between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. This is one of the warmest and saltiest seas in the world. The Red Sea washes the shores of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel and Jordan.

In the north, the Red Sea is connected by the Suez Canal to Mediterranean Sea, in the south - the Bab el-Mandeb Strait with the Arabian Sea. The peculiarity of the Red Sea is that not a single river flows into it, and rivers usually carry silt and sand with them, significantly reducing the transparency of sea water. Therefore, the water in the Red Sea is ideally clean and transparent.

The shores of the Red Sea are low, in the north they are adjacent to deserts, in the southern part the western coast is adjacent to mountainous Abyssinia. Many coral reefs, scattered throughout the coast, especially the Arabian, and in some places stretching for a long distance from the shore, constitute a distinctive feature of the Red Sea coast.

You can also familiarize yourself with the map of the Red Sea in more detail and find out the location of the main resorts:

A narrow trench, a rift, runs through the center of the sea, with depths exceeding 1000-1500 m, and in the north this trench breaks up into a series of depressions filled with brines that differ in temperature and salinity.

The discovery of depressions with hot brines in the Red Sea was a real scientific discovery in the sixties of the twentieth century. To date, more than 20 such depressions have been discovered in the deepest areas. The huge number of exotic fish of the Red Sea and the beauty of the coral reefs attract diving enthusiasts here.

Tourism in Egypt

Sights and interesting facts about the Red Sea.

Where is the Red Sea?

The Red Sea is natural water border between the continents of Eurasia and Africa. Considered an inland sea of ​​the Indian Ocean, it divides with its almost parallel shores the northeastern side of the African continent and southern shores countries of the Middle East. The geological origin of the sea is associated with the divergence (drift) of the continents and the resulting series of faults - troughs, which turn into one another. The man-made Suez Canal completes the “official” separation of the continents and connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, providing a short shipping route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean.

Why is the sea called Red?

Historians are finding out where the sea got its name. Several versions have a right to exist (although there is not much evidence):

1. In spring, the water takes on a reddish tint due to the excessive proliferation of red unicellular algae.
2. In ancient times, the cardinal directions had “colored” names: “northern” was called “black”, “southern” - “red”, “eastern” - “white”. The “Red” sea was named so, perhaps because it was further south relative to the “Middle Sea”.
3. The Arabs could have misread the ancient cuneiform records and instead of naming the sea from the Himyarites tribe, who considered the sea theirs, they called it the Arabic word “Akhmar” (red).

The ancient Greek geographer and historical writer Agatharchides of Knidos wrote the book “On the Red Sea (Erythraean)”, for the first time describing waters far from Greece.

Features of the Red Sea: climate, geology, water and unique living world

Both shores of the Red Sea are distinguished by a dry desert climate, only closer to the north it becomes mild Mediterranean, as on the coast of Turkey. In summer, the temperature above the sea reaches +50, in winter it drops to +22-25. Over the sea, only 100 mm of precipitation falls per year, which is considered an exceptionally small amount even for deserts. But 15 times more evaporates from the surface, and if not for the Indian Ocean, whose current replenishes and renews the water volume of the sea, it would dry up.

The Red Sea is considered the saltiest sea in the Indian Ocean (in which living organisms can live). 41 grams of salt/liter (and even more at the bottom thanks to salty springs) do not frighten animals, on the contrary, they attract them, since there is more oxygen in sea water.

You may be interested in the following articles:

Leaning Tower of Pisa: Tuscany's most famous landmark

Why do people lie to each other?

Why have people lost interest in exploring the Moon?

The coastal shelf gently drops to 200 meters, ending sharply with faults, the deepest of which reaches 3 kilometers. Very pure salt water is not polluted by any fresh river.

The fauna of the Red Sea is considered unique. The coral kingdom is so diverse that the sea has been declared a nature reserve of world significance. Growing at a rate of several millimeters per year, the coral banks and ridges have grown into multimeter-long limestone deposits along the shore. On the border of the abruptly falling coral shores, life is in full swing: coral fish, sea urchins and stars feeding on corals inhabit every square meter of the coastal shallows.

In the Red Sea, you can often find unique inhabitants of the sea: giant whale sharks, sea turtles and hammerhead sharks, giant rays and moray eels. To protect these animals, countries with developed tourism have introduced strict laws protecting the underwater world.

Egypt's popular resorts of Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Taba attract scuba diving and beach holiday, windsurfing and sailing yachts. Comfortable hotels and Egyptian exotica provide tourists from all over the world with an unforgettable vacation.

The RED SEA, a Mediterranean sea of ​​the Indian Ocean, is connected to it in its southern part through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north it is connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal. Located between the northeastern edge of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula in southwestern Asia.

Area 460 thousand km 2, volume 201 thousand km 3. The greatest depth is 3039 m. The sea is significantly elongated from northwest to southeast (length 1932 km, width up to 306 km). The Red Sea, due to the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, is the most isolated sea in the Indian Ocean. The shores are mostly flat, sandy, and rocky in places. Coastline slightly indented, the eastern and western shores of the sea along their main length run almost parallel to each other. In the north there are two large elongated gulfs - the shallow Gulf of Suez and the deep-water Aqaba, separated by the Sinai Peninsula. There are numerous small islands and coral reefs in the coastal zone, large islands in the northern part they are rare, most of them are located in the south, where they form groups, the most significant of which are Dahlak and Farasan.

Advertising

Relief and geological structure bottom. The bottom topography includes a shelf with numerous coral structures, a continental slope and a bed, which is almost entirely occupied by a narrow abyssal trough, elongated along the longitudinal axis of the sea and divided by a number of transform faults into separate deep-sea depressions that have received individual names (Albatross, Atlantis, Valdivia, Discovery, Oceanographer and others, about 20 in total). The width of the shelf in the northern part is from 1 to 20 km, gradually increasing to the south to 100 km or more. In the southernmost part of the sea, adjacent to the Babel-Mandeb Strait, the shelves on the opposite shores are separated only by a small trench about 200 m deep. The sedimentary cover of the shelf area is composed of Lower Miocene terrigenous and volcanic-sedimentary rocks with evaporite horizons (thickness 2-4 km), which overlain by Pliocene-Quaternary calcareous and silty-calcareous silts. The cover rests on fault-broken folded metamorphic rocks and granites of the African-Arabian platform. The underwater slopes of the Red Sea depression are ledges composed of continental rocks overlain by coral limestones. The bottom of the deep-sea basin of the Red Sea is divided into two parts according to its morphology and structure: a wide and flat northwestern part (up to about 23° north latitude) and a narrow and highly dissected southeastern part. In the northwestern part, the bottom of the basin is occupied by a wide (about 100 km) accumulative plain, bordered by steps with steep mountains, the tops of which often form reefs, shoals, and islands. Within the lateral steps, the bottom is composed of horizontally lying or gently folded, mainly carbonate, sediments, which are underlain by a layer of limestone and evaporites. Sediments overlie a granitic-metamorphic basement, which pinches out in the direction of the trough axis; in the same direction the thickness of the sedimentary layer decreases. The southeastern part of the basin is characterized by a large (2000-3000 m) depth, the presence of an axial trench complicated by numerous depressions, one of which is confined to the greatest depth of the Red Sea. In the mid-1960s, in a number of depressions (Atlantis I, Discovery, Chain, etc.), bottom waters with a very high temperature (over 60 ° C) and salinity (over 260‰) were discovered - the so-called hot brines, similar in chemical composition with relict brines from oil wells. The bottom of the depressions is lined with Pliocene-Quaternary metalliferous silts with very high concentrations compounds of iron, zinc, copper and other metals. Bottom sediments rest on basalts and basic igneous rocks of the dike complex (the second layer of the oceanic crust). In the southeastern part of the basin, modern underwater volcanism is observed, the heat flow is increased compared to the average level characteristic of the ocean floor; The epicenters of earthquakes are concentrated near the axial trench.

In geotectonic terms, the Red Sea depression is an intercontinental rift structure, which is a link in the East African Rift System and connects through the Gulf of Aden rift with the Arabian-Indian spreading ridge of the Indian Ocean. To the north, the Red Sea rift continues into the Gulf of Aqaba and is connected by a regional strike-slip fault to the Dead Sea rift basin and the Jordan Valley. In the rift zone of the Red Sea, starting from the late Miocene, new formation of oceanic crust occurs, accompanied by the growth seabed(spreading), as a result of which the Arabian Peninsula moves away from Africa, and the ocean basin opens. The rate of separation of lithospheric plates is estimated to be about 1-2 mm per year.

Climate. Climatic conditions The Red Sea is determined primarily by the fact that its basin belongs to one of the most pronounced arid regions of the Earth. The presence of deserts surrounding the sea area in the northeastern part of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula leads to the predominance of dry and hot weather, characteristic of a continental tropical climate.

The main mechanism of weather formation is the regional system of atmospheric circulation in the space surrounding the Red Sea, determined by the presence of stationary and seasonal centers of atmospheric action: an anticyclone in northern Africa, an area of ​​low pressure in the central part of Africa and an alternating extreme of atmospheric pressure over Central Asia.

Their interaction leads to the fact that for most of the year, north-northwest winds dominate over the entire Red Sea water area, and only south of 20° north latitude from October to April, during the winter Indian Ocean monsoon, do south-southeast winds prevail. Daily breezes are developed in coastal areas. Significant daily and seasonal fluctuations in air temperature are characteristic. The average daily temperature in mid-summer in the north is about 27 °C, in the south about 33 °C, in winter 17 and 23 °C, respectively. The observed maximum temperature in the south is about 47 °C, the minimum temperature in the north is below 6 °C. Rainfall over the sea is extremely rare, the average annual number of days with precipitation is no more than 10. Precipitation is observed mainly in winter - from a few mm in the north to 200 mm in the south. With the exception of some areas, the average relative humidity does not exceed 70%. In some cases (during the action of the Khamsin and Samum desert winds), humidity can drop to 5%. The Red Sea is characterized by dust fogs and mirages. Evaporation from the sea surface due to the high average temperature and great dryness of the air is very significant - more than 200 cm/year, which far exceeds the corresponding figures for all other areas of the World Ocean located in the same latitudinal zone. Highest repeatability clear skies on average is 250 days a year. From May to October there are 20-28 days with minimal cloudiness, from November to April - 13-22.

Hydrological regime. Not a single river flows into the Red Sea. Only in the north, sometimes, after the passage of the next Mediterranean cyclone, the beds of dry rivers are filled with rainwater flowing into the sea in the form of short-term turbid streams; river flow actually does not matter for the marine hydrological regime. Level fluctuations in the Red Sea are caused by the seasonal course of evaporation from its surface, tides, which are mainly semi-diurnal in nature, and surge phenomena under the influence of seasonal winds in the southern part of the basin.

An increase in the density of sea water due to its winter cooling also plays a small role. All these factors, to one degree or another, affect level fluctuations, but since the stability of the sea volume is largely regulated by water exchange with the Indian Ocean through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the resulting fluctuations in the average monthly water level for the sea as a whole are small, up to 30-35 cm. In the middle part of the sea, the spring tide is about 25 cm, in the extreme southern and northern regions - up to 1-1.5 m. Non-periodic surge fluctuations in level are most significant in northern parts the Gulf of Suez and Aqaba and in the south in the bays of the Dahlak Islands, where amplitudes can exceed 1.5 m. Storms occur quite rarely and mainly in the north of the region.

Water circulation in the Red Sea is characterized by significant seasonal variability. In the southern part from November to March the surface current is directed north-northwest along east coast at a speed of about 50 cm/s. From June to September, currents in the opposite direction prevail here. In the summer, under the influence of the winds that dominate the entire water area, the transport of surface water towards the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait develops at a speed of 20-30 cm/s. In the central part of the sea, at 20-21° north latitude, under certain wind conditions, large-scale gyres are observed.

The hydrological structure of the sea is characterized by the presence of three main water masses. The upper layer (0-150 m) is occupied by water with a relatively low salinity of Indian Ocean origin. Deeper (up to 300-350 m) lies the intermediate Red Sea water mass proper, formed in the north under the influence of winter vertical convection. Finally, the lower layer is also a deep water mass formed in the north with high salinity (>40‰) and a constant temperature of about 20 °C. The average surface water temperature in winter ranges from 22 °C in the north to 26 °C in the south. In the central part of the sea in winter and spring, due to circulation patterns, an increase in water temperature up to 27 °C is observed. In summer average temperature surface water in the north is about 27 °C, and in the south it can exceed 32 °C. A small influx of fresh water and intense evaporation from the sea surface lead to a significant increase in water salinity, which in the north reaches the highest value in the seas of the World Ocean (Gulf of Suez), the lowest average salinity of surface water is about 37‰. Its values ​​gradually decrease towards the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. Water exchange through this strait plays an important role in hydrological regime seas. The salty deep waters of the Red Sea flow through it into the Indian Ocean and spread at the depth of their density over large spaces. In turn, from the Gulf of Aden to the north, as a rule, in winter, there is a surface gradient and wind current, compensating for the decrease in the volume of sea water due to evaporation.

History of research. The sea apparently got its name from the presence of planktonic algae in it, which have a reddish tint during the flowering period. According to another version, this name was given under the impression of the reddish coastal mountains Sinai Peninsula reflected on the water surface. The proximity of the Red Sea to the centers of ancient Afro-Asian civilizations made it famous many millennia ago. The sea has long served peoples North Africa and Arabia, an important transport artery through which their trade routes passed. Modern scientific research into the Red Sea actually began only in the 19th century, after European expeditions that explored the Indian Ocean visited it. One of the first among them to travel by sea after the creation of the Suez Canal in 1869 was the Russian round-the-world expedition on the Vityaz under the command of Captain 1st Rank S. O. Makarov and the German one on the Valdivia. From the Vityaz in March 1889, 4 oceanographic stations were carried out in the Red Sea to a depth of 600 m. The main studies that made it possible to obtain existing ideas about the nature and resources of the sea were carried out in the 20th century. Among them, special mention should be made of expeditions European countries and the USA during the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), the work of the International Indian Ocean Expedition (1960-1965). Several special oceanographic expeditions in the Red Sea in the 1960-80s were carried out by scientific vessels of the USSR. Particularly interesting were the results obtained by the expedition of the Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences named after P. P. Shirshov in 1979-80 using the Pisis underwater manned vehicles, from which for the first time visual observation of the surface of the brine layer, water sampling and geological survey of the bottom were carried out.

Economic use.

The Red Sea is the most important transport route after the construction and commissioning of the Suez Canal. On the coasts of the Red Sea there are large modern ports that handle large flows of various cargo: Suez, Bur Safaga (Egypt), Port Sudan (Sudan), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Massawa (Eritrea), Hodeidah (Yemen), etc. Underwater Oil fields are being developed on the shelf of the northern part of the sea, in the Gulf of Suez (Egypt), several fields have been discovered on the southern shelf (Eritrea, Saudi Arabia). Phosphorite deposits developed in the Red Sea (Egypt) are of great economic importance. Reserves of non-ferrous and precious metals are concentrated at the bottom of the rift zone. Fish production is gradually increasing and other seafood is being caught - crustaceans, mollusks (mainly squid), etc. At the end of the 20th century, the tourism business developed rapidly, and a network was created on the coast of the northern part of the sea sea ​​resorts of various classes, the largest of which are Sharm el-Sheikh, Hurghada (Egypt), Aqaba (Jordan), Eilat (Israel).

Ecological state. Active industrial and resort development of the coast and waters of the Red Sea, especially oil production and transportation, pose a real threat to the safety of its unique ecosystem. The most polluted areas of the sea are in its northern part, in the Gulf of Suez. Almost all coastal states take certain measures to protect and control the marine environment. International conventions provide for serious sanctions against anthropogenic pollution of the Red Sea with household waste and oil products, which pose a particular danger here due to the large number of transit transport ships.

Lit.: Kanaev V.F., Neiman V.G., Parin N.V. Indian Ocean. M., 1975; Monin A. S. et al. Immersion in brines of the Red Sea depressions // Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 1980. T. 254. No. 4; Metalliferous sediments of the Red Sea / Edited by A. P. Lisitsyn, Yu. A. Bogdanov. M., 1986; Plakhin E. A. Hydrology of the Mediterranean Seas. L., 1989; Red sea. St. Petersburg, 1992.

V. G. Neumann.

Left a reply Guest

Exploring the Indian Ocean, between the Arabian and Hindustan peninsulas, we will see the Arabian Sea. Its area is one of the largest in the world, it is 4832 thousand square meters. km, the deepest depression is 5803 meters.

In ancient times this sea was called the Eritrean Sea. The Indus River flows into the Arabian Sea. The seashores are indented by bays and bays, they are high and rocky, partly low-lying deltaic. The largest gulfs of the sea are Aden, it is connected to the Red Sea by the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Kutch, Cambay and Oman, it is connected to the Persian Gulf by the Strait of Hormuz.

The Arabian Sea is part of the Indian Ocean. The sea is divided into two basins - the Arabian, with a depth of more than 5,300 meters, and the Somali, which is about 4,600 meters deep. They are framed by two underwater plateaus less than 1800 meters deep.

The expanses of water cross the Arabian-Indian mid-ocean ridge in a rift valley whose depth is more than 3,600 meters.
The relief of the sea bottom was formed in the Mesozoic-Cenozoic, most of it in the Pliocene. Near the Indus River delta, the shelf is cut by submarine canyons. Its width off the coast of India and Goa is 120 km, depth up to 220 meters, Gulf of Cambay– depth 90 meters and width 352 km. Approaching the Makran coast, the shelf narrows to 35 km, decreasing in a westerly direction. The slope of the continent to a depth of 2750 meters is covered with terrigenous sediments, and the basins are covered with red clay.
The Arabian Sea is distinguished by the fact that there are few islands here, most of them are located off the coast, the largest being the Laccadive Islands and Socotra. The climate here is tropical, monsoon; in winter the winds blow from the north-east, bringing clarity and coolness. In summer, southwestern directions predominate, determining humidity and cloudiness. Typhoons are possible in autumn, spring and summer. In the winter months, the air temperature is 20-25 degrees Celsius, in the summer - 25-29 degrees, precipitation falls from 25 to 125 mm per year, in the east the amount can increase to a maximum of 3000, especially in the summer. The water temperature in winter is 22-27 degrees, in summer – 23-28 degrees, the maximum occurs in May, when the temperature of the surface layer of water is 29 degrees Celsius. Due to the fact that the waters of the Arabian Sea all year round remain warm, a large number of popular world resorts are located on the coasts of the Arabian Sea. One of the most popular among them is Goa, a state in southern India. Every year, a huge number of tourists fly to Goa to relax on the sandy Goan shores, attend local excursions and swim in the soft waters of the Arabian Sea.

Location: between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa
Washing the shores of countries: Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel, Jordan
Square: 438,000 km²
Greatest depth: 2211 m
Coordinates: 20°44"41.1"N 37°55"27.9"E

Content:

The Red Sea, located in a tectonic depression and being the third largest inland sea on our planet, the Indian Ocean, is considered the youngest and most interesting in terms of the diversity of flora and fauna.

It is located between the African continent and the Arabian Peninsula. The Red Sea is connected to the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean through the well-known Suez Canal.

Speaking about the Red Sea, you should pay attention to the fact that it is considered the saltiest of all the seas that are part of the World Ocean, which washes all the continents of our planet.

“Why is this sea the saltiest of all the seas?” a person who does not know the geography and location of the Red Sea may ask. The thing is that the Red Sea is the only sea in the whole world into which not a single freshwater river flows. Naturally, it is significantly inferior in salt content to the Dead Sea, but it should be remembered that practically no living organism can survive in the Dead Sea, and the Red Sea amazes even experienced divers with the abundance of life forms. And this despite the fact that the salinity of the water of the magnificent Red Sea is up to 60 grams of salts per liter of water taken for laboratory analysis.

As a comparison, it is worth citing the salinity of the water, popular among domestic tourists, in the Black Sea - it is only 18 grams of salts per liter of water.

In addition, describing the Red Sea, which is rightfully considered one of seven wonders of the underwater world, it is impossible not to mention that this is also the warmest sea on the planet. It is warmed not only by the rays of the sun, but also by the earth’s mantle, that is, in the Red Sea, unlike other seas, not cold, but warm layers of water rise from the depths. In winter, the water warms up to 21 - 23 degrees Celsius, and in summer up to +30. Because of high temperature water and its constant evaporation, the Red Sea became the saltiest in the world, naturally, after the Dead Sea.

Origin of the name of the Red Sea

The Red Sea, according to the most conservative assumptions of scientists, originated 25 million years ago. Therefore, it is, alas, impossible to find out exactly why the Red Sea was called “Red”. There are only a few versions of the origin of the name of the Red Sea, although it is worth mentioning right away that none of them can be considered reliable.

According to the first version, the name comes from the ancient language of the Himyarites - a people who lived in South Arabia long before these lands were captured by the Arabs. The conquerors tried for a long time to decipher the writing of the Semites and decided to read the three letters “X”, “M” and “P” in their own way - “Akhmar”, which translated means red. This assumption can be considered as a version that does not deserve special attention: it is difficult to imagine that the Arabs decided to add vowels to a foreign language in order to get a word that would be familiar to them, because they were deciphering the language, and not merging it with their own.

The second version, according to historians, is more plausible, although it is associated with the myths of many peoples who inhabited the territory near the Red Sea. They associated each part of the world with a specific color. The color red was associated with the south, where the sea was located, hence its name. According to documents that have survived to this day and have been deciphered by scientists, the Red Sea was mentioned back in the 2nd century BC, and in the 16th century some researchers called this sea, which is part of the Indian Ocean, Suez.

As mentioned above, the sea was formed even when India began its movement towards to the Asian mainland, and this event happened long before the first person appeared on Earth, so scientists will probably not be able to find out for sure why the saltiest sea that is part of the World Ocean was called “Red”.

The Long History of the Youngest Sea

Over the entire period of its existence, the Red Sea, despite its young age (naturally, according to geological standards), has experienced a number of changes and cataclysms. For 25 million years, which for our planet can be considered only a short moment, the level of the World Ocean has constantly fluctuated, which, by the way, is still happening. Glaciers melted and new ones formed; the waters of the oceans rose and fell by tens, or even hundreds of meters. As soon as the level of the World Ocean dropped significantly, the Red Sea turned into a huge salt Lake, where the salt content was several times higher than the amount of salt per liter of water in the Dead Sea.

By the way, at the moment the sea is connected to the ocean by the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The deepest point of the strait is 184 meters. One can only imagine what will happen if a new ice age begins and the level of the World Ocean drops by 190 meters. The Red Sea will cease to communicate with the waters of the Indian Ocean and will once again become dead. However, this does not threaten our contemporaries and descendants. Such a decrease in the level of the World Ocean occurs over hundreds of thousands of years, so the amazingly beautiful sea that washes the shores of Sudan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and, of course, Egypt will delight everyone who wants to see all the wealth of the underwater world that can only be found in the Red Sea or on the Barrier Reefs.

Scientists have found that the Red Sea quite often lost its “connection” with the World Ocean, and its coast dried up and was covered with salt. As a result of this, even now, alas, you will not find lush vegetation on the shores of the Red Sea, and you will not be able to quench your thirst from the spring that flows. The water underground also tastes salty. Surprisingly, even rains in the Red Sea area will not give life-giving moisture to the soil; they, like the sea and the springs near it, are salty.

Forest by the Red Sea

Yes, dear reader, you heard right, in the northernmost part of the Red Sea there is a forest consisting of mangroves. This forest is part of a nature reserve called Nabq. Only mangroves are able to grow in salt water and do not require constant access to oxygen to the root system.

This amazing plant is able to remove excess salt through its leaves, and life-giving fresh moisture nourishes the wood. Mangroves usually grow together in such a way that it is quite difficult for a person to get through them, and once in a certain area, you can easily find yourself in a trap from which it is impossible to get out without outside help. The mangroves of the Red Sea are home to a huge number of animals and birds, whose lives are monitored by ornithologists and zoologists in the reserve.

Flora and fauna of the Red Sea

If we say that The Red Sea is real paradise for divers, fishermen and people interested in spearfishing, this will not be an exaggeration. You just have to put on a mask and pick up a snorkel, and right off the coast you can see the enchanting underwater world with many colorful corals, sponges, sea urchins and fish.

Sometimes it seems that each species competes with each other here in terms of brightness of color and unusual shape. The warm and crystal clear waters of the Red Sea support many species of underwater flora and fauna, most of which are endemic. Life underwater here is in full swing and does not stop even in the dead of night.

Today alone, scientists who conduct research in the depths of the Red Sea have discovered and described almost 1,500 invertebrates, and almost the same number of fish species. The waters of the Red Sea are home to almost 300 species of corals, the reproduction of which is a fantastic picture.

Huge sea turtles and frolicking dolphins complement the amazing landscape and tell the tourist that he is in a place where underwater life is revealed to man in all its glory.

It is surprising that, according to ichthyologists, no more than 60% of the underwater inhabitants of the Red Sea have been discovered in our time. The greatest depth of this unique sea is more than 3 kilometers, which means that most deep-sea fish are not yet known to science. So far, only forty-three species of fish living at great depths have been discovered. Also, the Red Sea constantly poses more and more mysteries for scientists. It is still unknown why about 30% of the inhabitants of the northern part of the sea cannot live in its other part.

It seems as if an invisible border prevents them from moving from north to south. Although the chemical composition of water and temperature conditions in these areas are almost identical. Maybe the reason lies in the word “almost”?...

Despite the extraterrestrial beauty of the underwater world, the Red Sea is fraught with a lot of dangers. Touching the most beautiful corals, sponges or fancy jellyfish in the sea is strictly prohibited. This is written about in almost every tourist brochure. Injection sea ​​urchin or the bite of a poisonous underwater snake, toothed moray eel can lead to burns, an allergic reaction, severe blood loss, and sometimes death of the victim.

When diving into the depths of the Red Sea, you must remember that it is home to 44 species of sharks. Some of them are quite harmless creatures that live only at great depths and feed on plankton or small fish. However, among them there are also species that are most dangerous to humans, for example, the tiger shark, which often attacks a person for no apparent reason. Its mouth is lined with huge, sharp teeth that can easily tear off a limb. Alas, in recent years, attacks by tiger sharks on vacationers have become more and more frequent, which, for the most part, often end fatally. There is evidence that a great white shark was seen in the Red Sea, which, even according to scientists, is a killing machine.

The views of tourists and vacationers, directed at the Red Sea and its map, will find many best places for relax.

In this part of the planet there are several countries whose resorts are ready to welcome travelers almost all year round, fortunately the climate, weather, air and water temperatures are conducive to this. What does the Red Sea map have to offer? First of all, these are the resorts of Egypt, located along its two shores: on the mainland and on the Sinai (Arabian) Peninsula.

Red Sea beach holiday map: mainland Egypt

The famous resorts of Egypt are located on the mainland (Africa). Hurghada is primarily suitable for family holidays and holidays with children. The Elguna (El Gouna) resort is very popular with romantics, couples in love, artists, musicians, ideal for wedding tours, and it is also called the “Venice” of Egypt. This is also a fairly quiet, but luxurious and expensive resort.

Many people associate the Red Sea with a great opportunity to relax on the best, but inexpensive resorts with luxurious beaches, a large selection of hotels to suit every taste and an abundance of unforgettable entertainment.

The Red Sea on the World Atlas in Russian

Red sea has a number of features. Thanks to them, it is significantly different from other bodies of water.

What country is it in?

The Red Sea on the world map can be found where the African continent and the Arabian Peninsula diverge.

This body of water is part of the Indian Ocean and is located in a deep tectonic depression.

On north this water area has peculiar borders with, thanks to the Suez Canal, and on south through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait it is connected to the Arabian Sea, which is also part of the Indian Ocean.

Story

Geologically, the reservoir was formed at the junction of the African and Arabian lithospheric plates and it arose relatively recently - about 40 million years ago, when a deep crack arose in the earth's crust. Over millions of years, the hole was filled with ocean water, forming its own plant and animal world. Even today, the plates continue to move, so the shores constantly diverge, and its depth increases.

There are several versions of why the sea got its name:

• In ancient times the south associated with the color red;
• Blooming corals in water they change its shade;
• Red rocks at sunset they give the sea a special hue.

More romantic legends tell that the sea began to be called red when a young man in love decorated the surface of the water for his beloved rose petals. And according to another version, it was in this sea Moses' pursuers drowned, when the waves converged again behind the Jews.

Which countries does it wash?

First of all, the countries that are associated when mentioning the Red Sea coast are and. In addition, the sea is surrounded by six other countries - Jordan, where it forms the Gulf of Aqaba, as well as the coasts of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen.

Description

Once upon a time the Red Sea was only small basin on the Afro-Asian continent, but over time the plates separated more and more, and the size of the reservoir increased.

Characteristics

Today, the depth in the central part of the sea reaches very impressive dimensions - 3000 meters, the depression from the fault - 1000 meters, and the coastal zone - up to 200 meters.

The length of the reservoir from north to south is 2350 km, and its width is 350 km. Water volume – 450 thousand square meters. km.

There are several features associated with the Red Sea:

1. Into the pond no river flows, so the water here is much clearer;
2. Heatwave increases the rate of evaporation, increasing the concentration of salt;
3. In the southern part of the sea there are islands, the largest archipelago is Dahlagh;
4. Due to the constantly high temperature, this body of water is considered.

The coast of the resort is very extensive, well-groomed and has good developed infrastructure. It is home to several dive centers offering a variety of dive sites. You can also go to Aqaba to explore the historical ones.

Coastal areas of other countries

Red Sea resorts located in other countries are less known, but most of them are developing steadily. Already available for Massawa holidays in Eritrea.

Due to its location on the world map, the Red Sea has all the conditions to ensure that your vacation remains eventful and unforgettable.

Origin of the name of the Red Sea. Famous resorts, dangerous inhabitants of the deep sea.

Our planet is amazingly beautiful. There's so much on her beautiful places that travelers dream of visiting them all.

The Red Sea: where is it located on the world map, which countries does it wash, what ocean area does it belong to?

The Red Sea is an inland body of water in the Indian Ocean. It is located between Africa and Asia, or more precisely, the Arabian Peninsula in a tectonic fault. It is the only one in the world that does not receive new water from rivers, since none of them flow into it.

The Red Sea washes the shores of such countries as:

• Egypt
• Sudan
• Djibouti (Ethiopia)
• Eritrea
• Saudi Arabia
• Yemen
• Israel
• Jordan

Location of the Red Sea on the Map

Location of the Red Sea on the World Map

As vacation approaches, many of us flip through the pages of travel magazines and websites offering interesting vacation options. Another useful activity is to study forums and reviews of tourists who have already visited the places of our dreams.

Continuing the theme of holidays in different parts of the world, let's talk about the Red Sea, its attractions and water temperature by month.

Why is the Red Sea called Red Sea?

slide with a photograph of underwater inhabitants near a coral and text about the origin of the name of the Red Sea

There is no clear answer to this question. There are versions and romantic stories.

Among the first known are the following:

• Rocks - sailors saw the reflection of red rocks in the water at sunset.
• Corals - their abundance in the depths of the sea gives it such a color if you look down from a bird's eye view.
• Blood is a biblical story about the passage of Moses through the waters of the sea, which closed over the heads of his pursuers.
• Translation error - until the 6th century, there lived on the coast a people who did not have vowel sounds in their language. By adding them at our discretion in the Arabic version, we got this name.
• The color of water inhabitants - if corals live in water and grow, this is a sign of its purity. It is logical that the fauna world feels good in such conditions. There are many red fish in the Red Sea.
• Geographical location - the Assyrian calendar assigned its own color to the main cardinal directions. So the south symbolizes red.
• Error of interpretation ancient word— Let's return again to the biblical story of Moses. It talks about his passage through the Sea of ​​Reeds. But one of the translators English language I lost one letter in the word. And so the sea turned red.

The stories that gave this name to the sea tell of:

• A man in love who strewn the surface of the sea with red rose petals in order to betray the depth of his feelings to the lady of his heart.
• A rich miser who made a huge fortune selling a hot spice - red pepper. But the inhabitants of the city in which he lived expelled him. Due to overload, the rich man's ship sank, and the surface of the water turned red due to pepper that got into the water from the ship's holds.

What is the water temperature in the Red Sea by month?

a man dipped a thermometer into the water of the Red Sea to determine its temperature

Since this sea is mostly located in the tropical zone, the temperature of its waters is comfortable for swimming all year round and does not fall below +20℃.

Peak warmth occurs from July to October. For more information about the temperature indicators of the Red Sea waters, see the figure below.

monthly fluctuations in water temperature in the Red Sea on the shores of Egypt

However, due to the extent of the sea area from north to south, there are fluctuations in water temperature. See the figure below for average data.

average water temperatures of the Red Sea

What are the resorts on the Red Sea and the best cities in Israel and Jordan for a beach holiday?

photo of the beach on the Red Sea - Aqaba, Jordan

Every country whose shores are washed by the Red Sea has resorts worthy of attention. They welcome tourists all year round and delight with their level of service in addition to the beauty of the water and its depths.

If you are thinking about which resorts to visit on this sea, pay attention to:

• Hurghada and Sharm in Egypt
• Eilat and Coral Beach in Israel
• Aqaba and Tela Bay in Jordan

Why is the Red Sea the saltiest, what explains the high salinity of the Red Sea?

slide about the salinity of the Red Sea and its location on the map

The high percentage of salt in the water of the Red Sea is not accidental. There are several reasons for this:

• lack of new waters, since not a single river flows into it
• location in a hot climate, respectively, a large number of fumes

Are there sharks in the Red Sea, and what dangerous inhabitants and fish are there?

Since the Red Sea has corals, its fauna is very diverse. And sharks live here. There are tiger and gray reef. Regarding the latter, we note that it is typical for the Indian Ocean.

Among the dangerous fish and inhabitants of the waters of this warm salty sea you can find:

• moray eels - they do not attack first, only in cases of scuba divers approaching too close,
• the blue-finned ballistod, also known as the giant triggerfish, the Titan triggerfish and the yellow-faced pseudoballista, another name is the yellow-faced triggerfish - they are dangerous during the spawning period; their females selflessly defend their nest,
• surgeon fish - its tail fins are sharper than a blade, aggressive when meeting a person,
• stonefish, or wartfish - disguises itself as a rock bottom, its poisonous spines on the dorsal fin are dangerous,
• lionfish, or lion fish - never attack, injuries are possible due to human negligence on the poisonous rays of the fins,
• scorpionfish - hide in thickets and at the bottom in silt, have poisonous processes on the dorsal fins,
• stingrays - with a poisonous spike on the tail, hiding in the mud at the bottom,
• barracudas - rarely attack, are dangerous with sharp teeth of the lower jaw, leave lacerations,
• cone snails - the most dangerous species geographical and textile,
• crown of thorns starfish - their poisonous spines located throughout the body are dangerous,
• fire corals - touching them leaves poisonous burns.

Why can't you feed the fish in the Red Sea?

tourist feeds bread to fish in the Red Sea

There are several reasons, each significant:

• Firstly, the digestive system of fish is not adapted to digest human food.
• Like any animal that is fed by humans, it requires supplementation and a regular supply of food.
• If a person refuses, the fish is able to attack and bite him. Here it should be remembered that the underwater world of the Red Sea abounds dangerous species fish that inject poison into the human body through their bite.
• The fish live in an ecosystem that worked just fine without people. The loss of one or more links in the food chain inevitably provokes the death of others.

Underwater world of the Red Sea, corals: description

field of colorful corals in the Red Sea

Coral colonies in the Red Sea are the center of life not only for marine inhabitants, but also for people. The smallest representatives of the coral reef are polyps. They form their colonies thanks to calcium carbonate produced by unicellular algae. She lives in the soft tissues of coral.

• Live corals have color; dead corals are white, solid structures. The former build their branches on the latter. This is how corals grow in width, length and height. By the way, their growth rate is scanty, about 1 cm per year.
• Polyps in their body produce 2 colors - blue and red. However, in the Red Sea there are even black corals, which are highly valued in jewelry.
• The yellow tones are added to them by zooxanthellae, a microalgae that lives in the soft tissue of coral.
• The polyp has a mouth through which it sucks in food, as well as small tentacles around it. In a number of species, the latter have poisonous hairs, which the body shoots at the prey.
• There are also polyps that exude a poisonous aroma, paralyze small plankton, or have sticky mucus on the surface to which it sticks.
• Polyps hunt only at night. Among the polyps there are meat eaters and vegetarians. The former feed on small crustaceans and plankton.
• Coral settlements prefer shallow depths - up to 100 m of clean, warm water. Since they live thanks to algae, the latter need sunlight for photosynthesis.

In the Red Sea you will find a huge number of coral species. This:

• brainiacs
• soft eight-rayed
• dendroneftia
• sacrophytons of different shapes - ball, mushroom, curved
• orange
• xenidia
• fiery
• gorgonians
• bright red sunny
• heteroxenia
• cell favia
• Arabian acropa

Together they form a unique symbiosis with the local fauna and attract tourists to look into their world again and again.

So, we looked at the history of the origin of the name of the Red Sea, its geographical position, its most famous resorts. We looked into the depths of the sea to get acquainted with dangerous inhabitants and types of corals.

If you are planning a winter vacation, choose a trip to the Red Sea. It's warm, beautiful, and fun for any company. We wish you unforgettable impressions and bright photos!

Video: underwater inhabitants of the coral reefs of the Red Sea