Atlas Trail
The Mediterranean Piece by Piece: Seas, Straits and Gulfs From Alboran to Crete
The Mediterranean is not one sea but a chain of basins joined by narrow passages. This trail follows that chain from the Strait of Gibraltar at its western edge to the Sea of Crete in the east, stopping at the seas, straits, bays and gulfs that give each stretch its character, from marine sanctuaries and mythic monsters to earthquake coasts.
Stop 1 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Alboran Sea is the westernmost basin of the Mediterranean, lying between Spain and Morocco just east of the Strait of Gibraltar. It is where Atlantic and Mediterranean waters mix, which the atlas links to strong currents and unusually rich marine life.
Stop 2 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Balearic Sea is an arm of the western Mediterranean between mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands. Its waters have long served as a shipping and tourism corridor for both the coast and the islands.
Stop 3 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Strait of Bonifacio is the passage that both connects and separates Corsica and Sardinia. Its name comes from the Corsican town of Bonifacio, said to take its name from Boniface I, Margrave of Tuscany, who founded a citadel there around 828 CE.
Stop 4 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Ligurian Sea lies off the northwestern coast of Italy and the southeastern coast of France, bordered by the Italian Riviera and the Cote d'Azur. Its deep basin includes a protected marine sanctuary for whales and dolphins.
Stop 5 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Bay of Naples encloses the city of Naples and sits under Mount Vesuvius, whose eruption in 79 CE buried Pompeii and Herculaneum. The atlas records its area as about 870 square kilometres, and its shores have been prized and settled since antiquity.
Stop 6 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Strait of Messina separates the Italian mainland from Sicily and has been tied since antiquity to the mythical monsters Scylla and Charybdis. Ferries cross it continuously, while a bridge across it has long been proposed but never built.
Stop 7 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Strait of Sicily is a wide channel between Sicily and the coast of Tunisia, dividing the western and eastern basins of the Mediterranean. It has been a strategic naval chokepoint and is today a major migration route.
Stop 8 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Gulf of Sidra is a wide, shallow gulf on the coast of Libya, with a recorded area of about 57,000 square kilometres. Libya at times claimed it as internal waters, which led to naval confrontations with the United States in the 1980s.
Stop 9 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Strait of Otranto runs between southeastern Italy and Albania and links the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. The atlas describes it as the narrowest crossing between the Italian and Balkan peninsulas.
Stop 10 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Gulf of Corinth is a deep, narrow inlet that separates the Peloponnese from mainland Greece, with a recorded area of about 2,400 square kilometres. The Corinth Canal crosses it at its narrowest point, and its steep, tectonically active shores make the region prone to earthquakes.
Stop 11 of 11.
Bodies of Water
The Sea of Crete forms the southern part of the Aegean Sea, with a total surface area of about 45,000 square kilometres. It lies north of the island of Crete, south of the Cyclades and west of the Dodecanese, bounded on the west by the Ionian Sea.
Create an account to keep this trail. Saving copies its stops into a collection of your own, which you can add to, reorder and share.
Where you have got to in this trail is kept by your own browser and is never sent to us. Clearing your browser data clears it. All trails.