MEDITERRANEAN SEA 



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MEDITERRANEAN SEA 



THE WORLD'S EARLIEST CIVILIZATION WAS NEAR ITS SHORES 



It is second only to Mecca as an objective point 

 for pilgrims. In this city the prophet carried 

 on his labors after his flight from Mecca. Me- 

 dina, encircled by walls, is situated in a fertile 

 plain about 250 miles northwest of Mecca, and 

 was formerly the capital of the Islam Empire. 

 See HEGIRA; MECCA. 



MEDITERRANEAN , med itera'ne an, SEA , 

 a great irregular inland sea lying between Eu- 

 rope, Asia and Africa, covering an area of about 

 813,000 square miles, over five times that of all 

 of the Great Lakes. 



As is implied by its name, which is derived 

 from the Latin medius, meaning middle, and 

 terra, meaning earth, it was anciently the cen- 

 ter of the world's life and commerce. The 

 Phoenicians, the boldest navigators of the an- 

 cient world, sailing its length and through the 

 Strait of Gibraltar, turned back, says a legend, 

 leaving an inscription upon the rocks reading 

 "ne plus ultra" (no more beyond). 



This sea was the highway which brought the 

 Asiatic colonists to Greece, Rome and Carthage, 

 and for over 3,000 years it was the great thor- 

 oughfare of the world. The oldest works of 

 classic literature describe the wanderings of the 

 Greeks and Romans upon the Mediterranean 

 waters and shores. Every great power of the 

 ancient world bordered the Mediterranean or 

 its smaller seas, the Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and 

 Ionian seas surrounding Italy; the Aegean, east 

 of Greece, and the Black, or Euxine Sea, on 

 whose straits was situated the ancient city of 

 Byzantium, now Constantinople. The islands of 

 Cyprus, Crete and Sicily, which broke the jour- 



ney from Greece and Rome to Asia and Car- 

 thage, and Sardinia and Corsica, between Italy 

 and Iberia, were important as trade centers. 

 The ancient galleys of Carthage, Greece and 

 Rome battled upon Mediterranean waters for 

 the world's supremacy. The narrow pass of Gi- 

 braltar, where a great fortress has been built 

 by nature, was the only entrance open to bar- 

 barian ships, and the ancient powers were thus 

 safe from outside invasion. 



Since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 

 the Mediterranean has been the great artery of 

 Europe-Asiatic trade. When Napoleon occu- 

 pied the town of Suez in Egypt, he conceived 

 the idea of the canal joining the Mediterranean 

 and Red seas, opening a route to Asia by way 

 of the Indian Ocean. Over 4,000 vessels now 

 pass through the canal each year. The impor- 

 tance of the Mediterranean as a trade route has 

 caused the expansion of European powers into 

 Northern Africa. During the great War of the 

 Nations, which broke upon the world in 1914, 

 the Mediterranean again became a center of 

 warfare. The fleet of England and France oc- 

 cupied the sea in the northeast, near the Bos- 

 phorus, where against the Turks the great naval 

 battles of the Dardanelles were fought without 

 success. Germany lined the sea with mines and 

 submarines for a distance of 500 miles, sinking 

 not only ships of war, but also neutral liners. ^ 



The calm, blue waters and beautiful shores of 

 the Mediterranean have long been the winter 

 playground of Europe. From Nice, in France, 

 to Genoa, in Italy, the famed Riviera stretches 

 (see RIVIERA). E.D.F. 



