The Aegean Sea[p] (, ''Egeo Pelagos'' ; or historically ) is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus. The Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The Aegean Region consists of nine provinces in southwestern Turkey, in part bordering on the Aegean sea.
The sea was traditionally known as ''Archipelago'' (in Greek, ''Αρχιπέλαγος'', meaning "chief sea"), but in English this word's meaning has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally, to any island group.
The Aegean Islands, which almost all belong to Greece, can be divided into seven groups:
#Northeastern Aegean Islands #Euboea #Northern Sporades #Cyclades #Saronic Islands (or ''Argo-Saronic Islands'') #Dodecanese (or ''Southern Sporades''), with the exclusion of Kastelorizo #Crete
The word ''archipelago'' was originally applied specifically to the Aegean Sea and its islands. Many of the Aegean Islands, or chains of islands, are actually extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, and a third extends across the Peloponnese and Crete to Rhodes, dividing the Aegean from the Mediterranean.
The bays and gulfs of the Aegean beginning and the South and moving clockwise include on Crete, the Mirabelli, Almyros, Souda and Chania bays or gulfs, on the mainland the Myrtoan Sea to the west, the Saronic Gulf northwestward, the Petalies Gulf which connects with the South Euboic Sea, the Pagasetic Gulf which connects with the North Euboic Sea, the Thermian Gulf northwestward, the Chalkidiki Peninsula including the Cassandra and the Singitic Gulfs, northward the Strymonian Gulf and the Gulf of Kavala and the rest are in Turkey; Saros Gulf, Edremit Gulf, Dikili Gulf, Çandarlı Gulf, İzmir Gulf, Kuşadası Gulf, Gulf of Gökova, Güllük Gulf.
''On the South.'' A line running from Cape Aspro (28°16'E) in Asia Minor, to Cum Burnù (Capo della Sabbia) the Northeast extreme of the Island of Rhodes, through the island to Cape Prasonisi, the Southwest point thereof, on to Vrontos Point (35°33'N) in Skarpanto[ Karpathos] , through this island to Castello Point, the South extreme thereof, across to Cape Plaka (East extremity of Crete), through Crete to Agria Grabusa, the Northwest extreme thereof, thence to Cape Apolitares in Antikithera Island, through the island to Psira Rock (off the Northwest point) and across to Cape Trakhili in Kithera Island, through Kithera to the Northwest point (Cape Karavugia) and thence to Cape Santa Maria () in the Morea.''In the Dardanelles''. A line joining Kum Kale (26°11'E) and Cape Helles.
The physical oceanography of the Aegean Sea is controlled mainly by the regional climate, the fresh water discharge from major rivers draining southeastern Europe, and the seasonal variations in the Black Sea surface water outflow through the Dardanelles Strait.
Analysis of the Aegean during 1991 and 1992 revealed 3 distinct water masses:
Aegean Sea Surface Water – thick veneer, with summer temperatures of 21–26 °C and winter temperatures ranging from in the north to in the south. Aegean Sea Intermediate Water – Aegean Sea Intermediate Water extends from 40–50 m to with temperatures ranging from 11–18 °C.
A possible etymology is a derivation from the Greek word '''' – ''aiges'' = "''waves''" (Hesychius of Alexandria; metaphorical use of (''aix'') "goat"), hence "wavy sea", cf. also (aigialos = aiges ''(waves)'' + hals ''(sea)''), hence meaning "sea-shore".
The subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea have given rise to the general term ''Aegean civilization''. In ancient times, the sea was the birthplace of two ancient civilizations – the Minoans of Crete and the Mycenean Civilization of the Peloponnese. Later arose the city-states of Athens and Sparta among many others that constituted the Athenian Empire and Hellenic Civilization. Plato described the Greeks living round the Aegean "like frogs around a pond". The Aegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and the Romans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoeses, the Seljuq Turks, and the Ottoman Empire. The Aegean was the site of the original democracies, and its seaways were the means of contact among several diverse civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean.
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Category:Landforms of Greece Category:Landforms of Turkey Category:Seas of the Mediterranean Category:European seas
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