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75-630: The town's name might be derived from "Shadadu"; a governor of the district of "Suru" mentioned in the annals of the Assyria king Assurnasirpal II . The town is situated off the western bank of the Khabur River . Nearby localities include al-Sabaa wa Arbain to the west. In the course of the Syrian civil war , the city was attacked by the rebel forces in the February 2013 Battle of Shaddadi and

150-482: A clear message for visiting dignitaries from other cultures but also the same message was innately obvious as a warning to the Assyrian elites as to what could happen if they decided to defy the king. Non-elites were likely not viewing these reliefs, as they would not have often, if ever, been permitted into the palace. The elites would have typically only been present at the palace for rituals and other business with

225-686: A destructive battle between the SDF/coalition forces and the Islamic State were to occur. It was also reported that IS was beginning to evacuate some of its positions near al-Shaddadi. On 19 February 2016, the town was captured by the SDF . On 21 January 2019, US and SDF forces were attacked by a VBIED . The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack through an affiliated news service. Assurnasirpal II Ashur-nasir-pal II ( transliteration : Aššur-nāṣir-apli , meaning " Ashur

300-457: A shrewd administrator, who realized that he could gain greater control over his empire by installing Assyrian governors, rather than depending on local client rulers paying tribute. His harshness prompted a revolt that he crushed decisively in a pitched, two-day battle. According to his monument inscription, while recalling this massacre he says: Their men young and old I took prisoners. Of some I cut off their feet and hands; of others I cut off

375-610: A ten-day banquet which 69,574 people attended. The palace walls were lined with reliefs carved in alabaster. These reliefs bore elaborate carvings, many portraying the king surrounded by winged protective spirits, or engaged in hunting or on campaign. Each relief had text inscribed in it. This text was the same or very similar on each relief and is therefore called the Standard Inscription. The Standard Inscription begins by tracing Ashur-nasir-pal II's lineage back three generations and recounts his military victories, defines

450-581: A wealth of historical and art-historical information about the ninth century BC Assyria and surrounding region. Ashurnasirpal II's palace in Kalhu (Nimrud, which is in modern-day Iraq slightly south of Mosul ) probably began construction c.878 BC, and is now generally accepted as having been completed after around 15 years alongside the near-total reconstruction of the Middle Assyrian city, c.864 BC. An inscription describing its inauguration details

525-619: Is a calque of the Latin name, from μέσος ( mésos , "in the middle") and γήινος ( gḗinos , "of the earth"), from γῆ ( gê , "land, earth"). The original meaning may have been 'the sea in the middle of the earth', rather than 'the sea enclosed by land'. Ancient Iranians called it the "Roman Sea", and in Classical Persian texts , it was called Daryāy-e Rōm (دریای روم), which may be from Middle Persian form, Zrēh ī Hrōm (𐭦𐭫𐭩𐭤 𐭩 𐭤𐭫𐭥𐭬). The Carthaginians called it

600-600: Is guardian of the heir" ) was the third king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 883 to 859 BCE. Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II . His son and successor was Shalmaneser III and his queen was Mullissu-mukannišat-Ninua. During his reign he embarked on a vast program of expansion, first conquering the peoples to the north in Asia Minor as far as Nairi and exacting tribute from Phrygia , then invading Aram (modern Syria ) conquering

675-582: Is known as al-Baḥr [al-Abyaḍ] al-Mutawassiṭ ( البحر [الأبيض] المتوسط ) 'the [White] Middle Sea'. In Islamic and older Arabic literature, it was Baḥr al-Rūm ( بحر الروم ) or al- Baḥr al-Rūmī ( بحر الرومي ) 'the Sea of the Romans' or 'the Roman Sea' or Baḥr al-šām ( بحر الشام ) or al-Baḥr al-šāmī ( البحر الشامي ) ("the Sea of Syria"). At first, that name referred only to the eastern Mediterranean, but

750-635: The Aramaeans and Neo-Hittites between the Khabur and the Euphrates Rivers. The palaces, temples and other buildings raised by him bear witness to a considerable development of wealth and art. Ashurnasirpal II was notorious for his brutality, using enslaved captives to build a new Assyrian capital at Kalhu ( Nimrud ) in Mesopotamia where he built many impressive monuments. He was also

825-743: The Atlantic Ocean , surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia , on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Europe , on the south by North Africa , and on the west almost by the Morocco–Spain border . The Mediterranean has played a central role in the history of Western civilization . Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago,

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900-614: The Balawat Bronze Bands are three sets of decorated bronze bands that had adorned the main doors of several buildings at Balawat (ancient Imgur-Enlil). Two of them date to the reign of Ashurnasirpal II. The third set of the Bronze Bands depicts the exploits of his son Shalmaneser III . After the Neo-Assyrian Empire fell and Balawat was destroyed, the wooden elements of the gates decomposed. Most of

975-514: The Black Sea . In Persian, the name was translated as Baḥr-i Safīd , which was also used in later Ottoman Turkish . Similarly, in 19th century Greek, the name was Άσπρη Θάλασσα ( áspri thálassa ; "white sea"). According to Johann Knobloch, in classical antiquity , cultures in the Levant used colours to refer to the cardinal points: black referred to the north (explaining the name Black Sea ), yellow or blue to east, red to south (e.g.,

1050-588: The Deir ez-Zor Governorate . After the SDF captured the South Hasakah Dam on 30 November, they continued their offensive southward, towards the city of al-Shaddadah, now IS's last stronghold in al-Hasakah province. Subsequently, Arab tribal leaders reportedly urged IS to withdraw from the city "peacefully," in order to prevent civilian casualties and the possible collapse of al-Shaddadi's economic infrastructure, if

1125-740: The Italian Lakes (Po). While the Mediterranean watershed is bordered by other river basins in Europe, it is essentially bordered by endorheic basins or deserts elsewhere. The following countries are in the Mediterranean drainage basin while not having a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea: The following countries have a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea: Several other territories also border

1200-735: The Italian city-states like Amalfi and Genoa before the Crusades, according to the Cairo Geniza documents. A document dated 996 mentions Amalfian merchants living in Cairo . Another letter states that the Genoese had traded with Alexandria . The caliph al-Mustansir had allowed Amalfian merchants to reside in Jerusalem about 1060 in place of the Latin hospice . The Crusades led to

1275-783: The Punic Wars in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the Roman Republic defeated the Carthaginians to become the preeminent power in the Mediterranean. When Augustus founded the Roman Empire , the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea"). For the next 400 years, the Roman Empire completely controlled the Mediterranean Sea and virtually all its coastal regions from Gibraltar to

1350-641: The Red Sea ) and white to west. That would explain the Bulgarian Byalo More , the Turkish Akdeniz , and the Arab nomenclature described above, lit. "White Sea". Major ancient civilizations were located around the Mediterranean. The sea provided routes for trade, colonization, and war, as well as food (from fishing and the gathering of other seafood) for numerous communities throughout

1425-559: The Roman Empire , Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea"). The term Mare Mediterrāneum appears later: Solinus apparently used this in the 3rd century, but the earliest extant witness to it is in the 6th century, in Isidore of Seville . It means 'in the middle of land, inland' in Latin , a compound of medius ("middle"), terra ("land, earth"), and -āneus ("having the nature of"). The modern Greek name Μεσόγειος Θάλασσα ( mesógeios ; "inland")

1500-637: The Statue of Ashurnasirpal II and the Black Obelisk by his son Shalmaneser III , with other reliefs on display in museums in Europe (e.g. Munich ), Japan and the USA. After Assyria fell in 612 BC, the palace became overgrown and eventually completely buried, in which state it remained for nearly 2,500 years until rediscovered by the British-born A.H. Layard in 1845. Layard oversaw the excavation of

1575-528: The "Syrian Sea". In ancient Syrian texts, Phoenician epics and in the Hebrew Bible , it was primarily known as the "Great Sea", הים הגדול HaYam HaGadol , ( Numbers ; Book of Joshua ; Ezekiel ) or simply as "The Sea" ( 1 Kings ). However, it has also been called the "Hinder Sea" because of its location on the west coast of the region of Syria or the Holy Land (and therefore behind a person facing

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1650-579: The 16th century and also maintained naval bases in southern France (1543–1544), Algeria and Tunisia. Barbarossa , the Ottoman captain is a symbol of this domination with the victory of the Battle of Preveza (1538). The Battle of Djerba (1560) marked the apex of Ottoman naval domination in the eastern Mediterranean. As the naval prowess of the European powers increased, they confronted Ottoman expansion in

1725-524: The 7th century, and with it the religion of Islam , which soon swept across from the east; at its greatest extent, the Arabs, under the Umayyads , controlled most of the Mediterranean region and left a lasting footprint on its eastern and southern shores. A variety of foodstuffs, spices and crops were introduced to the western Mediterranean's Spain and Sicily during Arab rule, via the commercial networks of

1800-556: The Aegean, at Rhodes and Miletus. Through tribute they became sources for the raw materials of his armies and his building programs. Iron was needed for weapons, Lebanese cedar for construction and gold and silver for the payment of troops. When considering the occupied citizens of his conquered territories, he wrote: I resettled them in their abandoned towns and houses. I imposed more tribute and tax on them than ever before: horses, mules, oxen, sheep, wine and labor. The Balawat Gates, or

1875-483: The Assyrians. More specifically these were displays of the relationships between Assyrians and non-Assyrians. The Assyrians were always shown in moments of glory while the non-Assyrians are in sprawled or contorted positions and most often naked. These illustrations represented violent death as punishment for violating Assyrian values, as well as merciless punishment for transgressions. Not only would this have served as

1950-834: The Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar —the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa —is only 14 km (9 mi) wide. The Mediterranean Sea encompasses a vast number of islands , some of them of volcanic origin. The two largest islands, in both area and population, are Sicily and Sardinia . The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500 m (4,900 ft) and

2025-655: The Islamic world. These include sugarcane, rice, cotton, alfalfa, oranges, lemons, apricots, spinach, eggplants, carrots, saffron and bananas. The Arabs also continued extensive cultivation and production of olive oil (the Spanish words for 'oil' and 'olive'— aceite and aceituna , respectively—are derived from the Arabic al-zait , meaning 'olive juice'), and pomegranates (the heraldic symbol of Granada) from classical Greco-Roman times. The Arab invasions disrupted

2100-610: The Kurdish-majority YPG and their multiethnic partners, including the al-Sanadid Forces of the Arab Shammar tribe, joined forces to form the SDF , al-Sanadid leader Bandar al-Humaydi made it an "immediate priority to liberate al-Hawl and al-Shaddadah from the Islamic State .” On 24 November 2015, it became known that Islamic State militants were transferring their family members further south to

2175-602: The Levant, being the only state in history to ever do so, being given the nickname "Roman Lake". The Western Roman Empire collapsed around 476 AD. The east was again dominant as Roman power lived on in the Byzantine Empire formed in the 4th century from the eastern half of the Roman Empire . Though the Eastern Roman Empire would continue to hold almost all of the Mediterranean, another power arose in

2250-593: The Levant, militants had looted many of Iraq's archaeological sites, including the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, and were selling artifacts on the black market. According to Aymen Jawad, executive director of Iraq Heritage (based in London), "Tablets, manuscripts and cuneiforms are the most common artifacts being traded, and, unfortunately, this is being seen in Europe and America,” he said. “Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of irreplaceable pieces are being sold to fund terrorists." On 5 March 2015 ISIL reportedly started

2325-852: The Mediterranean Sea is the Nile , which takes its sources in equatorial Africa. The basin of the Nile constitutes about two-thirds of the Mediterranean drainage basin and encompasses areas as high as the Ruwenzori Mountains . Among other important rivers in Africa, are the Moulouya and the Chelif , both on the north side of the Atlas Mountains . In Asia, are the Ceyhan and Seyhan , both on

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2400-612: The Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea without ship lock, because the water level is essentially the same. The westernmost point of the Mediterranean is located at the transition from the Alborán Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar, the easternmost point is on the coast of the Gulf of Iskenderun in southeastern Turkey. The northernmost point of the Mediterranean is on the coast of the Gulf of Trieste near Monfalcone in northern Italy while

2475-525: The Mediterranean towards East Africa and Asia. This led to a preference for the Mediterranean countries and their ports like Trieste with direct connections to Central and Eastern Europe experienced a rapid economic rise. In the 20th century, the 1st and 2nd World Wars as well as the Suez Crisis and the Cold War led to a shift of trade routes to the European northern ports, which changed again towards

2550-516: The Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about 2,500,000 km (970,000 sq mi), representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to

2625-520: The Temple of Mamu , the Mesopotamian goddess associated with dreams. It was on display in the Mosul Museum in Iraq, but is now largely missing because of the looting in the wake of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The documentation of these Bands is available in a 2008 publication by the British Museum. Destruction of Mosul Museum artifacts further occurred in 2015 because of a terrorist attack. These sets include 32 bands of figurative scenes embossed on bronze, including cuneiform inscriptions. They provide

2700-406: The ages. The earliest advanced civilizations in the Mediterranean were the Egyptians and the Minoans , who traded extensively with each other. Other notable civilizations that appeared somewhat later are the Hittites and other Anatolian peoples , the Phoenicians , and Mycenean Greece . Around 1200 BC the eastern Mediterranean was greatly affected by the Bronze Age Collapse , which resulted in

2775-407: The area as generic Mediterranean Sea, in the Western Basin. It does not recognize the label Sea of Sardinia . Note 2: Thracian Sea and Myrtoan Sea are seas that are part of the Aegean Sea . Note 3: The Black Sea is not considered part of it. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Mediterranean Sea as follows: Stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar in

2850-419: The boundaries of his empire, tells how he founded Kalhu, and built the palace. Ashurnasirpal II also built a massive gateway at Nimrud. The British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard excavated Kalhu in the 1840s, uncovering the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II. Today, many of the reliefs and sculptures from the excavations in Nimrud are displayed in the galleries of the British Museum , London , including

2925-418: The bronze bands survive, and can be found in museums. The gates were originally 6.8 metres high. The gates were first discovered by the Iraqi archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam on a British Museum expedition in 1878. They were found in the doorway of the king's palace. That set of the Balawat Bronze Bands is now on permanent display in London. The second set of the Bands was excavated by Sir Max Mallowan in 1956 in

3000-422: The city of Kalhu ( Nimrud ). Like previous Assyrian monarchs, Ashurnasirpal campaigned along the Euphrates against Aramaeans and in the Diyala against Babylon . Ashurnasirpal II's brutal treatment of rebels ensured that even when his army was not present, there would not be further revolts. Further revolts saw the local monarch replaced with a governor, loyal only to the Assyrian monarchy. Leading his army, which

3075-526: The deepest recorded point is 5,109 ± 1 m (16,762 ± 3 ft) in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea . It lies between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E . Its west–east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Alexandretta , on the southeastern coast of Turkey , is about 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi). The north–south length varies greatly between different shorelines and whether only straight routes are considered. Also including longitudinal changes,

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3150-399: The demolition of Nimrud. The local palace was bulldozed. Lamassu statues at the gates of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II were smashed. United States United Kingdom Europe Middle East Mediterranean For other countries, click here . The Mediterranean Sea ( / ˌ m ɛ d ɪ t ə ˈ r eɪ n i ən / MED -ih-tə- RAY -nee-ən ) is a sea connected to

3225-412: The depictions. Royal hunting scenes are some of the most well known of the Nimrud reliefs particularly those showing Assurnasirpal II hunting lions. There is also a distinct interest in the relationship between man and animal in many of the scenes. In several depictions the king is shown with supernatural creatures of animal and human combination. All of the apotropaic portrayals, which would have decorated

3300-512: The destruction of many cities and trade routes. The most notable Mediterranean civilizations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states and the Phoenicians , both of which extensively colonized the coastlines of the Mediterranean. Darius I of Persia , who conquered Ancient Egypt, built a canal linking the Red Sea to the Nile, and thus the Mediterranean. Darius's canal was wide enough for two triremes to pass each other with oars extended and required four days to traverse. Following

3375-403: The doorways of the palace, were of these human and animal hybrids. Within the context of these apotropaic figures were three main types, a winged figure wearing the horned crown which symbolized divinity, a winged figure wearing a headband of rosettes and a winged human figure with the head of a bird. Other popular themes in the Nimrud reliefs included military campaigns and victories garnered by

3450-438: The ears noses and lips; of the young men's ears I made a heap; of the old men's heads I made a minaret. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male children and the female children I burned in flames; the city I destroyed, and consumed with fire. Following this victory, he advanced without opposition as far as the Mediterranean and exacted tribute from Phoenicia . On his return home, he moved his capital to

3525-420: The east), which is sometimes translated as "Western Sea". Another name was the "Sea of the Philistines ", ( Book of Exodus ), from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites . In Modern Hebrew , it is called הים התיכון HaYam HaTikhon 'the Middle Sea'. In Classic Persian texts was called Daryāy-e Šām (دریای شام) "The Western Sea" or "Syrian Sea". In Modern Standard Arabic , it

3600-443: The entire Mediterranean. Once, most of the trade between Western Europe and the East was passing through the region , but after the 1490s the development of a sea route to the Indian Ocean allowed the importation of Asian spices and other goods through the Atlantic ports of western Europe. The sea remained strategically important. British mastery of Gibraltar ensured their influence in Africa and Southwest Asia. Especially after

3675-399: The flourishing of trade between Europe and the outremer region. Genoa, Venice and Pisa created colonies in regions controlled by the Crusaders and came to control the trade with the Orient. These colonies also allowed them to trade with the Eastern world. Though the fall of the Crusader states and attempts at banning of trade relations with Muslim states by the Popes temporarily disrupted

3750-401: The founding of Kalhu and speaks of the palace itself. The slabs, which contain relief, consist of depictions of Assurnasirpal's royal ideology. This ideology can be categorized into four main ideas, the military success of the king, his service to the gods, which provided divine protection and Assyrian prosperity. There is a particular interest in the anatomy of both humans and animals within

3825-436: The immediate coastline on all sides of the Mediterranean tends to have strong maritime moderation. The sea was an important route for merchants and travellers of ancient times, facilitating trade and cultural exchange between the peoples of the region. The history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. The Roman Empire maintained nautical hegemony over

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3900-629: The king. Assyrian women tend to be absent from all of these relief sculptures. This is most likely due to the context of the reliefs, which were male dominated activities. The only exception to women being absent from these scenes is non-Assyrian women who were captured as slaves during war. These were typically the elite women of other cultures, rather than the lower class. In contrast to the way in which male captives were portrayed, women were neither bound nor naked in their depictions. Women captives were most often shown in floor length outfits, with possibly one part of their body exposed in detail. Not all of

3975-588: The major ranges bordering Southern Europe. Total annual precipitation is significantly higher on the European part of the Mediterranean basin, especially near the Alps (the 'water tower of Europe') and other high mountain ranges. As a consequence, the river discharges of the Rhône and Po are similar to that of the Nile, despite the latter having a much larger basin. These are the only three rivers with an average discharge of over 1,000 m /s (35,000 cu ft/s). Among large natural fresh bodies of water are Lake Victoria (Nile basin), Lake Geneva (Rhône), and

4050-414: The migrants and arrest the traffickers of immigrants. In 2015, more than one million migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. Italy was particularly affected by the European migrant crisis . Since 2013, over 700,000 migrants have landed in Italy, mainly sub-Saharan Africans. The Mediterranean Sea connects: The 163 km (101 mi) long artificial Suez Canal in the southeast connects

4125-435: The naval battles of Abukir (1799, Battle of the Nile ) and Trafalgar (1805), the British had for a long time strengthened their dominance in the Mediterranean. Wars included Naval warfare in the Mediterranean during World War I and Mediterranean theatre of World War II . With the opening of the lockless Suez Canal in 1869, the flow of trade between Europe and Asia changed fundamentally. The fastest route now led through

4200-428: The number of drowned refugees in the region as a direct result of the policies. An Azerbaijani official described the sea as "a burial ground ... where people die". Following the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck , the Italian government decided to strengthen the national system for the patrolling of the Mediterranean Sea by authorising " Operation Mare Nostrum ", a military and humanitarian mission in order to rescue

4275-415: The palace during which time the reliefs that dominated the walls of the structure were removed from the site and sent to collections throughout Europe and North America, with the British Museum receiving the majority of these Nimrud reliefs. Despite excavating and removing many of these reliefs, a great number remained within the palace and were eventually reburied with time. M.E.L. Mallowan re-excavated

4350-477: The palace were lined with stone slabs of which a majority were decorated with relief images. Among these relief images occurred a certain amount of standardization around 870 BC. Carved into each of the stone slabs, including the ones lacking relief, was what is referred to as the Standard Inscription. This text gave the various names and titles of the king, spoke of his relationship with the gods and summarized his military conquests. The text also goes on to describe

4425-474: The region when the Battle of Lepanto (1571) checked the power of the Ottoman Navy . This was the last naval battle to be fought primarily between galleys . The Barbary pirates of Northwest Africa preyed on Christian shipping and coastlines in the Western Mediterranean Sea. According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th centuries, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves. The development of oceanic shipping began to affect

4500-409: The relief sculptures have been removed from the palace at Nimrud. Many of them are able to be viewed in their original context, although this is greatly limited. Many of the museums, which currently display the Nimrud reliefs, attempt to recreate the palace atmosphere by exhibiting them in a similar fashion to their original loci. In November 2014, it was reported that ISIL , Islamic State of Iraq and

4575-468: The sea for centuries and is the only state to have ever controlled all of its coast. The countries surrounding the Mediterranean and its marginal seas in clockwise order are Spain , France , Monaco , Italy , Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Montenegro , Albania , Greece , Turkey , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine ( Gaza Strip ), Egypt , Libya , Tunisia , Algeria , and Morocco ; Cyprus and Malta are island countries in

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4650-458: The sea. In addition, Northern Cyprus ( de facto state ) and two overseas territories of the United Kingdom ( Akrotiri and Dhekelia , and Gibraltar ) also have coastlines along the Mediterranean Sea. The drainage basin encompasses a large number of other countries, the Nile being the longest river ending in the Mediterranean Sea. The Ancient Egyptians called the Mediterranean Wadj-wr/Wadj-Wer/Wadj-Ur. This term (literally "great green")

4725-423: The shortest shipping route between the multinational Gulf of Trieste and the Libyan coastline of the Gulf of Sidra is about 1,900 kilometres (1,200 mi). The water temperatures are mild in winter and warm in summer and give name to the Mediterranean climate type due to the majority of precipitation falling in the cooler months. Its southern and eastern coastlines are lined with hot deserts not far inland, but

4800-408: The site from 1947 until 1957, when the project was taken over by the Iraq Department of Antiques which still has legal authority over the site. The known area of the palace measures 200m from north to south and 120 meters from east to west. This is most likely only a portion of the original design, including the possibility of an upper level while no concrete evidence of this remains. All of the walls of

4875-400: The south side of the Taurus Mountains . In Europe, the largest basins are those of the Rhône , Ebro , Po , and Maritsa . The basin of the Rhône is the largest and extends up as far north as the Jura Mountains , encompassing areas even on the north side of the Alps . The basins of the Ebro, Po, and Maritsa, are respectively south of the Pyrenees , Alps, and Balkan Mountains , which are

4950-421: The southern ports through European integration, the activation of the Silk Road and free world trade. In 2013, the Maltese president described the Mediterranean Sea as a "cemetery" due to the large number of migrants who drowned there after their boats capsized. European Parliament president Martin Schulz said in 2014 that Europe's migration policy "turned the Mediterranean into a graveyard", referring to

5025-599: The southernmost point is on the coast of the Gulf of Sidra near the Libyan town of El Agheila . Large islands in the Mediterranean include: The Alpine arc , which also has a great meteorological impact on the Mediterranean area, touches the Mediterranean in the west in the area around Nice . The typical Mediterranean climate has hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Crops of the region include olives , grapes , oranges , tangerines , carobs and cork . The Mediterranean Sea includes 15 marginal seas : Note 1: The International Hydrographic Organization defines

5100-440: The term was later extended to the whole Mediterranean, it was also called Baḥr al-Maghrib ( بحر المغرب ) ("the Sea of the West"). A name that was used mainly for the western basin. In Turkish , it is the Akdeniz 'the White Sea'; in Ottoman, ﺁق دڭيز , which sometimes means only the Aegean Sea . The origin of the name is not clear, as it is not known in earlier Greek, Byzantine or Islamic sources. It may be to contrast with

5175-508: The trade in western Europe and brought it to a halt. However, the Norsemen developed the trade from Norway to the White Sea , while also trading in luxury goods from Spain and the Mediterranean. The Byzantines in the mid-8th century retook control of the area around the north-eastern part of the Mediterranean. Venetian ships from the 9th century armed themselves to counter the harassment by Arabs while concentrating trade of Asian goods in Venice. The Fatimids maintained trade relations with

5250-487: The trade relations between Western and Eastern Europe while disrupting trade routes with Eastern Asian Empires. This, however, had the indirect effect of promoting trade across the Caspian Sea . The export of grains from Egypt was re-routed towards the Eastern world . Products from East Asian empires, like silk and spices, were carried from Egypt under the Arab rule to ports like Venice and Constantinople by sailors and Jewish merchants. The Viking raids further disrupted

5325-412: The trade with the Orient, it however continued. Europe started to revive, however, as more organized and centralized states began to form in the later Middle Ages after the Renaissance of the 12th century . Ottoman power based in Anatolia continued to grow, and in 1453 extinguished the Byzantine Empire with the Conquest of Constantinople . Ottomans gained control of much of the eastern part sea in

5400-657: The west to the entrances to the Dardanelles and the Suez Canal in the east, the Mediterranean Sea is bounded by the coasts of Europe, Africa, and Asia and is divided into two deep basins: The drainage basin of the Mediterranean Sea is particularly heterogeneous and extends much further than the Mediterranean region. Its size has been estimated between 4,000,000 and 5,500,000 km (1,500,000 and 2,100,000 sq mi), depending on whether non-active parts (deserts) are included or not. The longest river ending in

5475-525: Was captured three days later. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , over 100 Syrian Army soldiers and 40 al-Nusra fighters were killed, as well as dozens of petroleum workers. The city was later attacked and captured by the Islamic State which took over the city after ousting the rebels and it remained one of the last IS strongholds in the province. When in October 2015,

5550-734: Was the name given by the Ancient Egyptians to the semi-solid, semi-aquatic region characterized by papyrus forests to the north of the cultivated Nile delta, and, by extension, the sea beyond. The Ancient Greeks called the Mediterranean simply ἡ θάλασσα ( hē thálassa ; "the Sea") or sometimes ἡ μεγάλη θάλασσα ( hē megálē thálassa ; "the Great Sea"), ἡ ἡμετέρα θάλασσα ( hē hēmetérā thálassa ; "Our Sea"), or ἡ θάλασσα ἡ καθ’ ἡμᾶς ( hē thálassa hē kath’hēmâs ; "the sea around us"). The Romans called it Mare Magnum ("Great Sea") or Mare Internum ("Internal Sea") and, starting with

5625-586: Was typically composed of infantry (including auxiliaries and foreigners), heavy & light cavalry and chariots , Ashurnasirpal conquered the Hittites and Aramaean states of northern Syria. Ashurnasirpal II did not destroy the Phoenician / Canaanite cities he conquered. He was unsuccessful in his siege of Tyre , which under Ittobaal settled Kition in Cyprus and opened up trade routes throughout

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