The New Student's Reference Work/Mediterranean, The

Med′iterra′nean, The, is the largest inclosed sea. It is connected with the open ocean (the ) only by the narrow, nine miles wide. The name is derived from its being in the midst of three continents:, and. It is 2,200 miles long, varies from 500 to 100 miles in width, and has an area of 900,000 square miles. It is connected with the by the,  and the. The coasts of Europe and have many bays and gulfs, while the coast of Africa is even, with few indentations. The Tyrrhenian,, Iberian and s and the are different parts of the Mediterranean. ,, , , and  are among the larger islands. The region is subject to earthquakes, and, Stromboli and are its most famous. The bottom is divided into two parts by a ridge which crosses it from Sicily to Africa, the water being deeper in the eastern basin. The evaporation is greater than the amount of water poured into the Mediterranean by its rivers, and if it were not for the water of the Atlantic which flows in at Gibraltar, above the outflow of the heavier water of the Mediterranean, the sea would become saltier and shrink into two salt-lakes like the. connects the Mediterranean with the. The chief rivers that flow into it are the, and. The countries bordering the Mediterranean (,, and ) have been cradles of civilization, and the sea is well-known in history, poetry and ancient story, and to-day is one of the most important water-routes of the world.