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Red Sea Facts

Red Sea Facts
The Red Sea is located between Asia and Africa, and is an inlet to the Indian Ocean. The Red Sea connects to the India Ocean via the Bab el Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden to its south. North of the Red Sea lies the Sinai Peninsula, Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez, which then leads into the Suez Canal. The Red Sea covers an area of 169,100 square miles. It is 1398 miles in length and is 220.6 miles at its widest. The maximum depth of the Red Sea is 9,970 feet and its average depth is 1,608 feet. The Red Sea is the most northern tropical sea in the world.
Interesting Red Sea Facts:
The Red Sea Rift lies underneath the Red Sea. This rift is part of the Great Rift Valley, a 3,700 mile long continuous geographic trench that stretches from Asia's Beqaa Valley to South East Africa's Mozambique.
There are more than 1,000 invertebrate species in the Red Sea.
The Red Sea is also home to more than 200 hard and soft corals.
It is believed that the Red Sea's name may be referring to the red seasonal blooms of the Trichodesmium erythraeum.
Some theories suggest that the Red Sea got its name because some Asiatic languages referred to directions with colors.
The Red Sea is also referred to as the Erythraean Sea.
Ancient Egyptians are known to have explored the Red Sea while trying to create a trade route to Punt, as far back as 2500 BC.
The Red Sea was important to the spice trade as a transportation route during the Middle Ages.
Napoleon tried to gain control of the Red Sea in 1798 but failed to successfully invade Egypt and conquer the country.
The Red Sea is located between semi-desert, desert, and arid land masses.
The Red Sea exchanges its water with the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea through the Gulf of Aden.
Because of high evaporation rates the Red Sea is one of the world's saltiest seas. It reaches a level of 4.1% in its northern waters, while the average seawater salinity level is 3.5% (actual dissolved salt).
There are more than 1,200 fish species living in the Red Sea. Approximately 10% of these fish species can't be found elsewhere in the world.
There are many deep water fish found in the Red Sea including the glowbelly, blunt-tooth conger, blue lantern fish, naked barracuda, spotfin cardinal, and pink pipefish.
There is 1,240 miles of coral reef in the Red Sea, estimated to be between 5,000 and 7,000 years old.
There are 44 shark species that visit the coral reefs of the Red Sea including the bigeye houndshark, starspotted smooth-hound, milk shark, snaggletooth shark, whale shark, silvertip shark, grey reef shark, and zebra shark.
The Egyptian government has rules and regulations in place to protect the biodiversity of the Red Sea's coral reefs.
Some species living in the reefs of the Red Sea are dangerous to people including the tiger shark, scorpionfish, rabbitfish, and stingrays among many others.


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