Aegean Sea

Geographical description

It is limited on three sides by the continent or of the peninsulas; in the south, a string of islands separates it from the Eastern basin of the the Mediterranean: Cythère, Crete, Karpathos and Rhodos. Of is in west, it is broad from 300 to 400 km; north in the south, it makes 600 km. Its major funds are in the north of Crete, and reach 2 100 meters. The continental shelf (depth lower than 200 m) is very limited.

It bathes a very great quantity of islands whose principal one is the Crete. Each zone includes/understands important islands:

septentrional zone , five islands principal belongs to Greece: Thasos, Samothrace, Lemnos, Lesbos, Tap-holes and Samos, the local capital is Mytilène. Two other islands belong to Turkey: Imbros and Ténédos.
In the West , close to continental Greece, the islands Sporades. They are populated of approximately 200 000 inhabitants on 3 836 km ²;
southernmost zone : the Cyclades and the Dodécanèse (Rhodos) belong to Greece. Capital: Hermoupolis . Approximately 260 000 inhabitants on 5 286 km ².

Names of the Aegean Sea

The name of Aegean Sea is used as from the 19th century; it comes from the legend of the king Égée who, in the Greek Mythologie, would have committed suicide at the time of the return of Crete of his son Thésée. The marine were to use white veils with their ships if Thésée returned alive, and black if that had perished at the time of its duel against the Minotaure. However the drunk crew of joy did not think of this promise. Égée believed whereas his/her son had died and, submerged out of pain, it committed suicide while being jettant with the sea, the top of cliff of the course Sounion, when the boats returned.

Another etymology brings this name closer to the term resulting from the old Greek aigailos indicating the " edge of mer" , and which is supposed to shelter, according to the Odyssey and Iliade, the residence of the god Poséidon.

At the time franque, the Vénitiens indicated the Aegean Sea by the term: " Arcipelago" who wanted to say " sea principale" (from the point of view of the Greeks). This teme appeared for the first time in 1268, on a treaty signed between the Doge de Venise and the Byzantine emperor Michel VIII Paleologist, who also indicated by Métonymie the whole of the Aegean islands. Finally, this term translated into French by " Archipelago " , will finish in the current language (even in Greek) by meaning " any whole of îles".

History

The Aegean Sea has been a Greek sea for more than four millenia: until 1922 and the Treated of Lausanne (which gives Eastern bank to Turkey and causes displacements of population), all islands, and the coasts north, is and western sea were populated as a majority of Greeks.

Antiquity

During Antiquity, the Aegean Sea supports the development of sea transport for the Greeks. Its mountainous and irregular coasts form frequent natural shelters; the very great number of islands, mountainous they as, makes as it is possible always to sail at sight, without never losing a coast of sight.

The Aegean Sea is thus the cradle of the first thalassocraties of the European history, that of the Minoens of Crete and that of Athens with the O C (Ligue of Délos).

With the Roman conquest, (Rome starts to manage Greece starting from 167 av. J. - C.), the coasts of the Aegean Sea belong to the same whole for several centuries: Worsen Roman, then Byzantine Empire until the 12th century and the arrival of the " francs" then Turks.

The Middle Ages

The shores are divided between the various Greek empires, the Latin Turks and States, until the fall of Rhodos in 1522, then the conquest of Crete, before Venetian, at the 17th century (taken Candie in 1669 and of Spinalonga in 1715).

Antagonism gréco-Turkish

Greece conquers its independence against the Ottoman Empire in 1830. Limited to the Peloponnese, the Attic and the Thessalie, she is opposed to the Ottoman Empire then with the Turkey during one century, and even until our days, to gather the populated grounds of Greeks.

See too

Sea of Thrace, left northern the Aegean Sea
Sea of Crete, left southern the Aegean Sea

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