The Mediterranean Sea It is a sea that divides and lies between Europe, Africa Y Asia. It can be said that it begins (or ends) in Rate.
Context
Historically it has always been an area of intense commercial and cultural exchanges. The first to establish trading colonies were the Phoenicians Y greek, with which they traded with the various original peoples of each region. Later were the romans Y Carthaginians those who disputed the commercial control of the Mediterranean and its coasts, giving rise to several wars, the so-called Punic Wars, which ended with the destruction of Carthage and the taking of full control by the Roman empire, who made it their own sea (called in Latin Mare nostrum, "Our sea").
After the fall of the Roman Empire it was again a time of commercial disputes, between the successors of the Romans, the Byzantine Empire and the emerging new civilization, the Muslims. To this must be added the appearance of Maritime Republics in Italy during the Middle Ages, among which stood out above all Venice Y Genoa.
In the Middle Ages it also lived through numerous wars, such as the Crusades, and attempts to stop the expansion of the Islam towards the north, as well as the scourge of the Barbary pirates in the European coasts.
With the discovery and conquest of America, the axis of world trade moved to Atlantic Ocean, with what the Mediterranean lost the importance that until that moment it had had. Although it remained a disputed territory, especially due to the confrontations between Christians and Muslims.
Today it is an area rich in culture, cradle of many of the most important ancient civilizations, from the egyptian and the phoenician, until greek and the roman, and therefore, plagued with ruins of those ancient civilizations as well as various successor cultures of those. It is also the place where the famous Mediterranean diet, considered by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Economy
Economically it continues to be of great importance, especially after the construction of the Suez Canal, which has allowed ships to access the Indian Ocean from the Mediterranean thanks to engineering. Although the high costs involved in its use have made many shipping companies prefer to continue circling Africa.
The largest ports in the Mediterranean Sea today, in container transport, are Valencia, Algeciras, Marsaxlokk (malt), Gioia taurus (Italy), Barcelona, Genoa, Piraeus (Greece) Y La Spezia (Italy)[1]. As for cruises, the main Mediterranean ports are Barcelona, Civitavecchia (Italy), Venice, Balearics, Piraeus, Naples, Livorno, Dubrovnik, Santorini Y Savona
Beaches
Mediterranean beaches are reputed to have a temperate climate, unlike those of the Atlantic or other oceans. This means that sun and beach tourism in all the Mediterranean islands has experienced a boom in the last times. Almost any European coast of the Mediterranean is very touristy, especially among the inhabitants of Northern Europe, due to the good price difference. On the other hand, the African women are in development, and the Asian women are currently experiencing a wave of armed conflicts that make them inadvisable.
Regions
- Iberian Peninsula
- French coast
- Italy
- Dalmatia Y The balkans
- Peloponnesus
- Asia Minor
- Middle east
- Egypt
- Maghreb
Countries
The Mediterranean also includes the coastline of 21 countries:
- Albania
- Cyprus
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Croatia
- France
- Italy
- Greece
- malt
- Principality of Monaco
- Montenegro
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Turkey
- Syria
- Israel
- Lebanon
- Algeria
- Egypt
- Libya
- Morocco
- Tunisia
Islands
Many islands are located within the Mediterranean, most of them forming part of a country mentioned above, and others being a country themselves, such as malt or Cyprus (although the latter with a very particular situation). They can be classified according to their size:
- Big islands: Sicily Y Sardinia.
- Middle islands: Cyprus, Corsica, Crete, Euboea, Majorca, Lesbos Y Rhodes;
- Small islands: Chios, Kefalonia, Corfu, Lemnos, Samos, Naxos Y Andros in the eastern Mediterranean; Cres, Krk, Brač, Hvar, P, Korčula Y malt in the central Mediterranean; Minorca and Ibiza, in the western Mediterranean; Y Djerba, on the African coast.
Seas
Furthermore, the Mediterranean Sea itself can be classified into different smaller seas, with their corresponding coasts:
- Mar Menor
- Balearic Sea
- Tyrrhenian Sea
- Ligurian Sea
- Adriatic sea
- Ionian sea
- Aegean Sea
- Alboran Sea
- Levantine Sea
- Libyan Sea
- Sea of Cilicia
Cities
- In Spain: Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca.
- In France: Marseilles, Nice.
- In Monaco: Monte Carlo.
- In Italy: Genoa, La Spezia, Naples, Palermo, Bari, Venice.
- In Slovenia: Koper, Piran.
- In Croatia: Rijeka, Split, Dubrovnik.
- In Montenegro: Kotor, Budva.
- In Greece: Athens, Thessaloniki.
- In Turkey: Istanbul, Smyrna, Antalya, Adana.
- In Syria: Latakia.
- In Lebanon: Beirut.
- In Israel: Tel Aviv.
- In Egypt: Alexandria.
- In Libya: Tripoli, Benghazi.
- In Tunisia: Tunisia.
- In Argelia: Algiers, Oran.
Travel
There are ferry and boat services between nearby countries, and there are also many cruise ships that offer visits to the most touristic cities while enjoying the mild Mediterranean climate. If not, you can also travel almost the entire coastline by car or other means of transport, transferring it by ferry when necessary, such as when crossing the Strait of Gibraltar.
References
external links
Wikipedia has an article on Mediterranean Sea.w: Mediterranean Sea
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