The Mediterranean Sea is located between Europe, Asia Minor and Africa. It is surrounded on all sides by land, with the exception of two narrow straits - the Strait of Gibraltar (connects the Mediterranean Sea with the North Atlantic) and the Bosphorus Strait (connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea) - and the Suez Canal (connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea).
Area of the Mediterranean Sea 2965.5 thousand km2, Average depth 1500 m; The greatest depth (5092 m) is the depression of the Ionian Sea, located west of the Peloponnese peninsula (part of the Hellenic depression). The shallow threshold of the Strait of Sicily and the narrow Strait of Messina divide the Mediterranean Sea into two parts - eastern and western (and, accordingly, into two basins). The boundaries of the seas that make up the Mediterranean Sea are set arbitrarily.
In the western part of the Mediterranean Sea there are the Alboran, Balearic, Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas, in the eastern part - the Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean and Marmara, located between the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits. The Mediterranean Sea is characterized by numerous small islands, especially in the Aegean and Ionian Seas.
Largest islands: Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, Corsica and Crete. The main rivers flowing into the Mediterranean Sea: Rhone, Nile and Po. The waters of the rivers that flow into the Black Sea enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.
Bottom relief
The Mediterranean Sea has many morphological features characteristic of an oceanic basin. The continental shoals are quite narrow (less than 25 miles) and moderately developed. Continental slopes are usually very steep and cut by submarine canyons. The canyons off the French Riviera and off the western coast of Corsica are among the best studied.
At the continental foot of the large deltas of the Rhone and Po rivers there are alluvial fans. The alluvial fan of the Rhone River extends and the sea towards the Balearic Abyssal Plain. This abyssal plain with an area of over 78 thousand km2 occupies most of the western basin.
The steepness of the slopes of this plain suggests that the deposition of sediments brought by turbidity currents from the Rhone largely occurs through channels cutting through the fan. However, the Balearic Abyssal Plain receives sediment to some extent from the canyons of the Cote d'Azur and the canyons of the North African coast (Algeria region).
In the Tyrrhenian Sea there is a central abyssal plain with several small plateaus, on which the highest seamount rises 2850 m above the sea floor (depth above the mountain 743 m). There are many other seamounts in this sea; on the continental slope of Sicily and Calabria, the tops of some of them rise above the surface of the sea and form islands. In soil cores taken from the central abyssal plain, layers of ash are clearly visible that correspond to historical volcanic eruptions on the Apennine Peninsula.
Bottom morphology The eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea is noticeably different from the morphology of the bottom of the western basin. In the western basin, except for a small abyssal plain in the center of the Ionian Sea, no other large areas with horizontally lying and undeformed terrigenous sediments were found. Vast areas of the bottom represent either a complexly dissected median ridge, or a series of collapsed depressions located in an arc parallel to the Hellenic archipelago.
Deep Sea Depressions stretch from the Ionian Islands and pass south of the islands of Crete and Rhodes in the Gulf of Antalya (Hellenic Basin). The greatest depth of the Mediterranean Sea - 5092 m - has one of these depressions with a flat bottom (filled with sediments). Sediments began to fill another depression south of the island of Rhodes (depth 4450 m).
On the Nile fan there are well-developed channels that form a large branched system. The channels lead to a very narrow abyssal plain at the base of the fan, in contrast to the western Mediterranean basin where the Rhône fan feeds the greater Balearic abyssal plain. Currently, the narrow abyssal plain at the base of the Nile fan is actively deforming; Some of its sections are a median ridge, or a series of collapsed depressions located in an arc parallel to the Hellenic archipelago. Apparently, in the recent past, the process of sedimentation occurred more slowly than the tectonic deformation of large parts of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Hydrological regime. The Mediterranean Sea is surrounded by countries with a dry climate, as a result of which the amount of evaporation significantly exceeds the amount of precipitation and river flow. The resulting water deficit is replenished through the Strait of Gibraltar by the influx of North Atlantic surface water. An increase in water salinity due to evaporation causes an increase in its density. Denser water sinks to depth; thus, the western and eastern basins are filled with a homogeneous and relatively warm water mass.
Temperature and salinity deep and intermediate waters fluctuate within very small limits: from 12.7 to 14.5 ° C and from 38.4 to 39 prom.
Water circulation
North Atlantic surface waters entering the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar move along the coast of North Africa and gradually spread over the surface of the Mediterranean Sea; part of the waters extends into the Lugirian Sea, part into the Tyrrhenian Sea. There, cooling due to evaporation and the influence of dry polar air masses coming from Europe, the waters sink, forming a certain type of water mass in the western Mediterranean Sea. North Atlantic waters also enter the eastern sector of the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Sicily. where some of them deviate north into the Adriatic Sea. As a result of evaporation, they also cool here and sink to depth. North Atlantic waters sporadically flow over the threshold of the Strait of Otranto, forming a deep water mass in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. The distribution of dissolved oxygen in the deep waters of the Ionian Sea indicates their circulation in a counterclockwise direction.
The remaining North Atlantic waters on the surface, now very much changed by evaporation, continue to move eastward to the island of Cyprus, where they sink during the winter months.
North Atlantic surface waters, carrying large amounts of dissolved salts, must eventually return to the North Atlantic, since the salinity of the Mediterranean Sea does not increase over time.
Outflow of waters from the Mediterranean Sea occurs through the threshold of the Strait of Gibraltar at a depth below the incoming flow (300 m). The Mediterranean water leaving the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar, despite its higher temperature, is significantly more saline and denser than the Atlantic water, which is at the same level. As a result, Mediterranean water, having entered the Atlantic Ocean, flows down the continental slope until, finally, at a depth of 1000 m it meets Atlantic deep water of the same density. The Mediterranean water then rises and spreads north, south and west, forming a layer that extends south into the Atlantic for several thousand miles.
Nutrients. The waters of the Mediterranean Sea are poor in nutrients. There are significantly less phosphates in them than in the waters of the North Atlantic. This is explained by this. that waters from the North Atlantic enter the Mediterranean Sea through a shallow threshold, so only North Atlantic surface waters, which themselves are already greatly depleted, pass into the Mediterranean Sea. The accumulation of nutrients in deep waters is also prevented by the continuous outflow of water returning through the Strait of Gibraltar. To completely ventilate the entire Mediterranean basin by removing water, about 75 children are required.
Tides in the Mediterranean Sea mostly semi-daily. The eastern and western basins have separate systems of standing waves. In the Adriatic Sea, a progressive (forward) tide of about 1 m is observed, moving around the aifidromic point located near the center of the Mediterranean Sea. In other points of the Mediterranean Sea the tide is about 30 cm.
Bottom sediments near the coast include the following components: 1) carbonates, consisting mainly of coccolithophores, as well as foraminifera and pteropods; 2) detritus carried by wind and currents; 3) volcanogenic substances and 4) end products of weathering of land rocks, mainly clay minerals. The average carbon content in the soil cores of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea is about 40% and in the soil cores of the western basin is about 30%. Detritus content varies from zero to maximum; in general, it is higher in the soil cores of the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Sometimes it is possible to recognize sandy horizons in soil cores and compare them from core to core. Volcanic ash forms more or less distinct layers and is also found in non-volcanic material. The amount of volcanic products is small, excluding areas close to the volcanoes (Vesuvius and Etna).
The rate of sedimentation near the Levanto and in the Ionian Sea is low, the same as in the central part of the North Atlantic; in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea it is several times greater.
Structure of the earth's crust. Analysis of data from seismic measurements using the refracted wave method, carried out in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea, showed that the earth's crust here is of “oceanic nature”. Throughout the Balearic Abyssal Plain, the depth of the Mohorovicic surface is less than 12 km from sea level. This value increases towards the mainland and reaches more than 50 km under the Alpes-Maritimes, which end abruptly at the Côte d'Azur.
In the Mediterranean Sea, a layer of sediments (thickness 1-1.5 km) with a low velocity of longitudinal waves (1.7-2.5 km/s) is underlain by a thick layer of rocks with an average velocity of longitudinal waves (3.0-6.0 km/s) With). Precipitation with low wave speed is much more powerful in the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea than in the eastern basin. If a layer with intermediate wave speeds marks the base of the sediment column, then its thickness is extremely small, taking into account the large area over which the Rhone River flow extends. (In the deep-water part of the Gulf of Mexico, the sediment thickness is more than 6 km.)
However, if the reflector is composed of consolidated sediments or volcanic rocks within a sedimentary sequence, then it indicates a significant change in the geological history of that basin. The magnetic field in the Mediterranean Sea is remarkably uniform, especially in the tectonically active eastern basin. However, strong anomalies occur over seamounts in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The central part of the Hellenic Basin is associated with a wide strip of negative gravity anomalies. They are associated with a large subsidence of the earth's crust blocks inside this depression. Seismic studies in the northern part of the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea revealed its lowering relative to the European continent by 3 km. The underlying cause of such large vertical movements is not well understood. Weak Faya gravity anomalies in the western Mediterranean indicate that the basin is in isostatic equilibrium. It is extremely difficult to imagine how the modern "oceanic" crust could have maintained its previous uplift without some redistribution of density within the deep crust or upper mantle.
Geotectonic development. The Mediterranean Sea is a relict sea, the remnant of a huge water basin that formerly stretched from Portugal to the Pacific Ocean (via the Alps, Southeast Europe, Turkey, Iran, the Himalayas, Southeast Asia). It is believed to have been associated with the Maori Geosyncline in New Zealand. Suess called this ancient sea basin the Tethys Sea.
Its history is well known since the Triassic, but even in the Paleozoic traces of such a connection are noticeable, and many authors speak of proto- or paleo-Tethys. Tethys separated the northern continents (Eurasia and, possibly, the continuation of North America, i.e. Laurasia) from the southern continents, originally united into Gondwana.
Between the two mentioned giant continental blocks of the primary “Protogen” there was, apparently, constant interaction for at least the last half a billion years. Different authors imagine these relationships in different ways. Proponents of continental drift, for example Argand, Wegener, believe that there was a constant convergence of the two original earth masses, which led to the subsidence of deep-sea depressions and ultimately to the formation of the Alpine folding, which arose at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous period and resumed in several phases of the Tertiary period.
According to others (for example, Staub, Glanzho), so-called “ebbs and flows” took place, i.e. processes of compression and expansion.
The total area of the sea is about 2500 thousand square meters. km, the greatest depth is 5121 m, and the average is about one and a half thousand m. The total volume of waters of the Mediterranean Sea is about 3839 thousand cubic meters. Since the Mediterranean Sea has a large area, the water temperature on its surface differs in different areas. So, on the southern coast in January it is 14-16 degrees Celsius, and on the northern coast it is 7-10, and in August it is 25-30 in the southern coast and 22-24 in the northern coast. The climate in the Mediterranean Sea is influenced by its position: the subtropical zone, but there are also a number of features due to which the climate is classified into a separate category: Mediterranean. Its characteristic features are that summers are dry and hot, and winters are very mild.
The flora and fauna of the Mediterranean Sea is largely due to the fact that the waters contain relatively small amounts of plankton, which are vital for marine life populations. Therefore, the total number of fish and larger representatives of the Mediterranean fauna is relatively small. In general, the fauna of the Mediterranean Sea is distinguished by the fact that a large number of different animal species live here, but there are very few representatives of each species. The fauna is also very diverse, with a wide variety of algae growing.
Mediterranean Sea - the cradle of humanity
In ancient times, many human civilizations developed on various shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and the sea itself was a convenient route of communication between them. Therefore, the ancient writer Gaius Julius Solin called it Mediterranean; it is believed that this is the first mention of the current name of the sea. Even today, the Mediterranean Sea has shores whose territories belong to 22 states located on the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa.
People have settled on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea since ancient times. Coastal areas became the cradle for a number of civilizations; unique cultures arose on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Today the coast also has a significant level of population, and coastal agriculture is also developed here. The economic use of the sea by countries on its northern side has the greatest economic development. Extensive agriculture: growing cotton, citrus fruits, oilseeds. Fishing in the Mediterranean Sea is not as developed as in other seas, which are also basins of the Atlantic Ocean. The low level of fishing is associated with a large number of industrial enterprises on the sea coasts, due to which the environmental situation is deteriorating. On the Mediterranean coast there are the most famous and very popular resorts in the territories of all countries that have access to this sea.
An interesting feature of the Mediterranean Sea is the constant observation by various people of mirages (also called fata morgana) in the Strait of Messina.
Among other things, the Mediterranean Sea is a kind of transport artery of the region. It is through its waters that the most important trade routes between Europe and Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania pass. Since Western European countries are economically increasingly dependent on imported raw materials, the delivery of which is carried out mainly by sea, the importance of the waters of the Mediterranean Sea as a transport route is increasing. The Mediterranean Sea plays a particularly significant role in the transportation of oil cargo.
Historically, the most important water basin for Europeans was the Mediterranean Sea. (True, other peoples might have had other seas as their main ones.) It was on its shores that Greek and Hellenic civilization arose. Using its blue waves, the Phoenicians - the best sailors of the Ancient World - learned to sail to distant lands... What is it and how and when did it arise?
The emergence of the Mediterranean Sea
Scientists believe that Mediterranean Sea - relic, that is, a relic of that ancient era when the single continent of the Earth - Gondwana was washed by the single Tethys Ocean (by the way, the Aral, Caspian, Black and Marmara Seas are considered the same relics, which filled the deep depressions on the single Gondwana when it split and separated into continents).
But there is another opinion: as if Tethys was once surrounded by land. And between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, where now, between Asia Minor and Europe, there were land bridges with river valleys. And only later they were flooded by ocean waters... There are different assumptions and hypotheses. That's why they exist, to study them, and then either accept them or reject them as untenable.
In the west, the Mediterranean Sea is connected to the Strait of Gibraltar. In the northeast, the Dardanelles Strait connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Marmara Sea, and the Bosporus Strait with the Black Sea. In the southeast, people dug the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean Sea to, and from it a direct route to the Indian Ocean.
The shores of the Mediterranean Sea are indented with bays and lagoons, which greatly contributed to the development of navigation among ancient peoples. There are also large bays: Valencia, Lyon, Genoa, Taranto, Sidra (Great Sirte), Gabes (Little Sirte). Find them yourself on the map.
Islands of the Mediterranean Sea
There are many islands in the Mediterranean Sea, especially in its northern part. The most significant of them: Sicily, then Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, Cyprus and the Balearic Islands. Some historians believe that once upon a time in the Mediterranean Sea there was an island of the state of Atlantis, disappeared as a result of a terrible volcanic eruption. Only most authors indicated the location of Atlantis in different ways, ranging from the shores of South America to the North Sea and from Yucatan to Mongolia...
The version that the island of Atlantis was located in the Mediterranean Sea, said the Russian traveler and scientist, academician Abraham Norov, who lived in the 19th century. It is this assumption that has gained the most popularity.
Atlantis is still being sought today. It is known, for example, that an entire civilization, the so-called Minoan culture, which existed one and a half thousand years BC somewhere in the region of the islands of Crete and Tyre, perished as a result of a major catastrophe. French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau discovered fragments of structures at the bottom of the underwater island of Thira, indicating that the city actually died there. It is only unknown whether it was Atlantis...
At the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea there are several deep basins with relatively steep continental slopes. The shelf strip is narrow, expanding only between the coast of Tunisia and Sicily and in the Adriatic Sea. The Mediterranean Sea basin includes many coastal seas. You should know them from history or mythology. Many different events took place there. Look at the map and find them yourself one by one.
Mediterranean weather and climate
The main wealth of the Mediterranean is its climate: mild wet winters and hot dry summers. In winter, atmospheric pressure decreases over the sea, and this determines unstable weather with frequent storms and rain. Local winds often blow. In summer, an anticyclone with clear weather, with little cloudiness and rare rain sets in over most of the Mediterranean basin. IN Mediterranean Sea From Africa, the southern wind sirocco sometimes brings dusty haze. And in the Strait of Messina you can often see mirages, the so-called Fata Morgana.
The Mediterranean Sea is considered intercontinental. It washes Europe, Africa, Asia and is connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar (length 65 km, minimum width 14 km). The water surface area of the intercontinental reservoir is 2.5 million square meters. km. The average depth is 1540 m. The maximum depth reaches 5267 m in the Ionian Sea, near the city of Pylos in southern Greece. The volume of water is 3.84 million cubic meters. km.
The length of the sea from west to east is 3800 km. The southernmost point of the reservoir is located in Africa in the Gulf of Sirte. The northernmost in the Adriatic Sea. The western one is in Gibraltar, and the eastern one is in Iskanderun Bay (southern Turkey).
Taking into account its shape, the intercontinental reservoir is divided into 2 basins. Western from Gibraltar to Sicily, and eastern from Sicily to the coast of Syria. The minimum width of sea waters is 130 km and runs between Cape Granitola (Sicily) and Cape Bona (Tunisia). The maximum width is 1665 km between Trieste (a city in Italy) and Greater Sirte (a bay on the coast of Libya).
The Mediterranean basin includes seas such as Marmara, Black and Azov. Communication with them is carried out through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits. Through the Suez Canal, a huge body of water is connected to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The intercontinental body of water itself has its own internal sea - the Adriatic. It is located between the Apennine and Balkan peninsulas. The Adriatic Sea is connected to the main waters by the Strait of Otranto, 47 km wide.
Mediterranean coast
Geography
Countries
The waters of a huge reservoir wash countries in which people with completely different cultures and mentalities live.
On the European coast there are states such as Spain (population 47.3 million people), France (66 million people), Italy (61.5 million people), Monaco (36 thousand people), Malta (453 thousand people ), Slovenia (2 million people), Croatia (4.4 million people), Bosnia and Herzegovina (3.8 million people), Montenegro (626 thousand people), Albania (2.8 million people), Greece (10.8 million people), Turkish Eastern Thrace (7.8 million people).
The following states are located on the African coast: Egypt (82.3 million people), Libya (5.6 million people), Tunisia (10.8 million people), Algeria (38 million people), Morocco (32.6 million people), Spanish Ceuta and Melilla (144 thousand people).
On the Asian coast there are states such as Turkey in Asia Minor (68.9 million people), Syria (22.5 million people), Cyprus (1.2 million people), Lebanon (4.2 million people), Israel (8 million people), Sinai Peninsula of Egypt (520 thousand people).
Seas
The huge body of water has its own seas. Their names and boundaries were formed historically many centuries ago. Let's look at them from west to east.
Alboran Sea located in front of the Strait of Gibraltar. Its length is 400 km and its width is 200 km. The depth varies from 1000 to 1500 meters.
Balearic Sea washes the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. It is separated from the main body of water by the Balearic Islands. Its average depth is 770 meters.
Ligurian Sea located between the islands of Corsica and Elba. It washes France, Italy and Monaco. The average depth is 1200 meters.
Tyrrhenian Sea splashing along the western coast of Italy. Limited to the islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. This is a deep tectonic basin with a depth of 3 thousand meters.
Adriatic Sea lies between the Balkan and Apennine peninsulas. It washes Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. In the northern part, the depth of the reservoir is only a few tens of meters, but in the south it reaches 1200 meters.
Ionian Sea located south of the Adriatic Sea between the Apennine and Balkan Peninsulas. It washes the shores of Crete, Peloponnese, and Sicily. The average depth corresponds to 2 km.
Aegean Sea located between Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula, limited to the south by the island of Crete. Connects through the Dardanelles with the Sea of Marmara. The depth ranges from 200 to 1000 meters.
Cretan Sea located between Crete and the Cyclades archipelago. The depth of these waters varies from 200 to 500 meters.
Libyan Sea located between Crete and North Africa. The depth of these waters reaches 2 thousand meters.
Cyprus Sea located between Asia Minor and the northern African coast. This is the warmest and sunniest part of the Mediterranean. Here the depth reaches 4300 meters. This body of water is conventionally divided into the Levantine and Cilician seas.
Mediterranean Sea on the map
Rivers
Such large rivers as the Nile (the second longest river in the world), the largest river in Italy, the Po River with a length of 652 km, the Italian Tiber River with a length of 405 km, the largest river in Spain, the Ebro (910 km) and the Rhone (812 km), flow into the Mediterranean Sea. km), flowing through Switzerland and France.
Islands
There are many islands. These are Cyprus, Crete, Euboea, Rhodes, Lesvos, Lemnos, Corfu, Chios, Samos, Kefalonia, Andros, Naxos. All of them are located in the eastern Mediterranean. In the central part there are islands such as Corsica, Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, Cres, Korcula, Brac, Pag, Hvar. In the western part are the Balearic Islands. These are 4 large islands: Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Formentera. Near them there are small islands.
Climate
The climate is strictly specific, Mediterranean. It is characterized by hot and dry summers and mild winters. In winter, the sea experiences frequent storms and rain. Local winds, bora and mistral, dominate. Summer is characterized by clear weather, minimal clouds and light precipitation. There are fogs. Sometimes there is a dusty haze, which is blown out of Africa by the Sirocco wind.
The average winter temperature in the southern part of the reservoir is 14-16 degrees Celsius. In the northern part of the reservoir it is 8-10 degrees Celsius. In summer, average temperatures in the north are 22-24 degrees Celsius, and in the south, respectively, 26-30 degrees Celsius. The minimum precipitation occurs in August, and the maximum occurs in December.
View of the Mediterranean Sea from space
Sea level rise
According to experts, by 2100 the level of Mediterranean waters may rise by 30-60 cm. As a result of this, most of the island of Malta will disappear. 200 square meters will be flooded. km in the Nile Delta, which will force 500 thousand Egyptians to leave their ancestral lands. Salt levels in groundwater will increase, which will reduce the amount of drinking water along the entire Mediterranean coast. In the 22nd century, sea water levels may rise by another 30-100 cm. This will cause significant economic, political and natural changes in the Mediterranean.
Ecology
In recent years, extremely high levels of seawater pollution have been observed. According to the UN, 650 million tons of wastewater, 129 tons of mineral oils, 6 tons of mercury, 3.8 tons of lead, and 36 thousand tons of phosphates were discharged into the Mediterranean Sea annually. Many marine species are on the verge of extinction. This primarily concerns white-bellied seals and sea turtles. There is a huge amount of garbage at the bottom. Most of the seabed is dotted with it.
Environmental problems have hit the fishery. Fish such as bluefin tuna, hake, swordfish, red mullet, and sea bream are on the verge of destruction. The size of commercial catches is decreasing from year to year. Tuna has been fished in the Mediterranean for thousands of years, but currently stocks are extremely low. Over the past 20 years they have decreased by 80%.
Tourism
The unique climate, beautiful coastline, rich history and culture attract millions of tourists to the Mediterranean every year. Their number is one third of all tourists in the world. Hence the enormous economic importance of tourism for this region.
But large financial flows cannot justify the degradation of the marine and coastal environment. Huge crowds of tourists pollute the Mediterranean coast. The situation is aggravated by the fact that visitors from all over the world are concentrated in those areas where the highest level of natural resources is observed. All this causes irreparable damage to flora and fauna. Their destruction and destruction will reduce the flow of tourists. They will begin to look for new places on the planet where they can once again destroy the unique gifts of nature with impunity.
The Mediterranean Sea is a semi-enclosed sea, located at the junction of three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. There are 22 UN member states on its shores, of which the longest coasts in the Mediterranean Sea are Spain, France, Italy and Greece in Europe, Turkey in Asia, Egypt, Libya and Algeria in Africa. In the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, up to eleven separate seas are distinguished, the largest of which is the Levantine Sea with an area of 320 thousand km², in whose waters the island of Cyprus is located, and the smallest is the Ligurian Sea, with an area of 15 thousand km², but on the shores of the Ligurian Sea there are such large port cities as Genoa and Nice.
You can get to the Mediterranean Sea from Russia in different ways: by land, by air and by water. When traveling by car or bus, you will have the opportunity to visit Belarus, Poland, further to Germany, from there to France, along the way you can visit the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. The duration of such a trip depends only on the route and time spent walking around European cities. When flying with leading airlines, it all depends on the country on whose coast you want to enjoy the waters of the Mediterranean Sea: a flight from Moscow to Monaco, Barcelona, or Athens will take about 4 hours, but to Naples, Rome or Tunisia there are direct flights from Moscow no, you will have to fly with at least one transfer and the flight will take from seven hours to a day. And for those who prefer yacht trips, a trip to the Mediterranean Sea is an excellent opportunity to spend a couple of months sailing. Having sailed from the Crimea, from Novorossiysk or Sochi to the Black Sea, all that remains is to get to the Bosphorus Strait, walk around Istanbul, then to the Sea of Marmara and from there, through the Dardanelles Strait, enter the waters of the Aegean Sea and you can sail to any port of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Mediterranean Sea has a developed fishing industry and is a real paradise for tourists. In addition, a new opportunity has recently emerged for wealthy citizens to secure an excellent vacation on the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. Due to internal economic problems, Greece began selling off its islands in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Hollywood star Brad Pitt and his wife Angelina Jolie have already bought one for themselves. However, Greece knows the price of its islands: the “cheapest” of them costs more than three million dollars. But, if for some reason you don’t have three million bucks, or just don’t need an island, you can rent a house in Malta for just $350 a month.
Mediterranean resorts
Storm on the coast of Crete
The resort town of Budva in Montenegro on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea
Shark on Cretan beach
Monaco Beach, Monte Carlo
A fish on the Mediterranean beach of Monaco loves a bun
Malta is the pearl of the Mediterranean!
