Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Aegean Sea

(Encyclopedia)Aegean Sea, Gr. Aigaion Pelagos, Turkish Ege Denizi, arm of the Mediterranean Sea, c.400 mi (640 km) long and 200 mi (320 km) wide, off SE Europe between Greece and Turkey; Crete and Rhodes mark its s...

Aegean civilization

(Encyclopedia)Aegean civilization ējēˈən [key], term for the Bronze Age cultures of pre-Hellenic Greece. The complexity of those early civilizations was not suspected before the excavations of archaeologists in...

Sea Peoples

(Encyclopedia)Sea Peoples, modern term for any of the groups of people who attacked Egypt and the E Mediterranean by sea and sometimes by land c.1200 b.c. They are recorded as having fought in battles with Egypt du...

Mediterranean Sea

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Mediterranean Sea [Lat.,=in the midst of lands], the world's largest inland sea, c.965,000 sq mi (2,499,350 sq km), surrounded by Europe, Asia, and Africa. Some of the most ancient civilizat...

Marmara, Sea of

(Encyclopedia)Marmara, Sea of, or Sea of Marmora, c.4,430 sq mi (11,474 sq km), NW Turkey, between Europe in the north and Asia in the south. The Sea of Marmara, c.175 mi (280 km) long and 50 mi (80 km) wide, is co...

sea

(Encyclopedia)sea, term used as synonymous with ocean, or a subdivision of an ocean (Caribbean Sea, Yellow Sea), or erroneously designating a large salt lake (Caspian Sea, Dead Sea, Aral Sea). ...

Archipelago

(Encyclopedia)Archipelago ärkĭpĕlˈəgō [key] [Ital., from Gr.,=chief sea], ancient name of the Aegean Sea, later applied to the numerous islands it contains. The word now designates any cluster of islands. ...

Asia Minor

(Encyclopedia)Asia Minor, great peninsula, c.250,000 sq mi (647,500 sq km), extreme W Asia, generally coterminous with Asian Turkey, also called Anatolia. It is washed by the Black Sea in the north, the Mediterrane...

Coral Sea

(Encyclopedia)Coral Sea, southwest arm of the Pacific Ocean, between Australia, New Guinea, and Vanuatu. The Great Barrier Reef lies along its western edge. During World War II it was the scene of the battle of the...

Dead Sea

(Encyclopedia)Dead Sea, salt lake, c.390 sq mi (1,010 sq km), extending c.45 mi (70 km) in the Jordan trough of the Great Rift Valley between the Ghor on the north and Wadi Arabah on the south, on the border betwee...