# Levantine Sea

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> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Levantine_Sea.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levantine_Sea
> Source revision: 1351925085
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{refimprove|date=April 2026}}
{{Short description|Easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea}}
{{Infobox body of water
| name               = Levantine Sea
| mapframe           = yes
| mapframe-zoom      = 3
| caption            = Map of the Levantine Sea
| image_bathymetry   = Levantine Sea.jpg
| caption_bathymetry = The location of the Levantine Sea
| location           = [Mediterranean](/source/Mediterranean)
| coords             = {{coord|34|N|34|E|type:waterbody_scale:5000000|name=Levantine Sea|display=inline,title}}
| type               = [Sea](/source/Sea)
| inflow             = 
| outflow            = 
| pushpin_map        = 
| catchment          = 
| basin_countries    = [Turkey](/source/Turkey), [Greece](/source/Greece), [Cyprus](/source/Cyprus), [Egypt](/source/Egypt), [Syria](/source/Syria), [Lebanon](/source/Lebanon), [Israel](/source/Israel), [Palestine](/source/Palestine)
| length             = 
| width              = 
| area               = {{cvt|320,000|km2}}
| depth              = 
| max-depth          = 
| volume             = 
| residence_time     = 
| salinity           = 
| shore              = 
| frozen             = 
| islands            = 
| trenches           = 
| benches            = 
| cities             = 
}}
The '''Levantine Sea'''<ref>({{langx|ar|بحر الشام|baḥr as-Shām}}; {{langx|tr|Bahr el-Şam}}; {{langx|el|Μεσανατολίτης Θάλασσα|Mesanatolítis Thálassa}}; {{langx|he|הים התיכון|HaYam HaTikhon}})</ref> is the easternmost part of the [Mediterranean Sea](/source/Mediterranean_Sea).<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Gacic|first1=Miroslav|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2AoOEAAAQBAJ&dq=.&pg=PA7|title=Ocean Exchange and Circulation|last2=Bensi|first2=Manuel|date=2020-12-10|publisher=MDPI|isbn=978-3-03936-152-6|location=|pages=7|language=en|quote=It is modified flowing eastward, passes the Sicily Channel and the Ionian Sea and enters the easternmost part of the Mediterranean, the Levantine Sea.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ashwarya|first=Sujata|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1KWDwAAQBAJ&dq=.&pg=PT60|title=Israel's Mediterranean Gas: Domestic Governance, Economic Impact, and Strategic Implications|date=2019-05-03|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-429-53623-6|location=|pages=2|language=en|quote=The Levantine Sea is the easternmost part of the Mediterranean that includes the territorial waters of Israel, Lebanon and Syria.}}</ref>

== Geography ==
The Levantine Sea is bordered by [Turkey](/source/Turkey) in the north and [north-east corner](/source/Hatay_Province), [Syria](/source/Syria), [Lebanon](/source/Lebanon), and [Israel](/source/Israel) and [Palestine](/source/Palestine) in the east, [Egypt](/source/Egypt) in the south, and the [Aegean Sea](/source/Aegean_Sea) in the northwest. Where it is used as a term its western border is amorphous, hence Mediterranean is more commonly used. The open western border to the next part of the Mediterranean (the [Libyan Sea](/source/Libyan_Sea)) is defined as a line from the headland [Ras al-Helal](/source/Ras_al-Helal) in [Libya](/source/Libya) to the [Greek](/source/Greece) island of [Gavdos](/source/Gavdos), to the south of [Crete](/source/Crete).{{fact|date=April 2026}}

The largest island in its subset of water is [Cyprus](/source/Cyprus). The greatest depth of {{cvt|4384|m}} is found in the Pliny Trench, about {{cvt|80|km}} south of Crete. The Levantine Sea covers {{cvt|320,000|km2}}.{{fact|date=April 2026}}

The northern part of the Levantine Sea between Cyprus and Turkey can be further specified as the [Cilician Sea](/source/Cilician_Sea), a term more arcane. Also in the north are two large bays, the [Gulf of İskenderun](/source/Gulf_of_%C4%B0skenderun) (to the northeast) and the [Gulf of Antalya](/source/Gulf_of_Antalya) (to the northwest).{{fact|date=April 2026}}

==Basins==
right|thumb|upright=1.2|Boundaries of the Levant Basin, or Levantine Basin (US EIA)
The [Leviathan gas field](/source/Leviathan_gas_field) is quite central in the south-eastern corner, the '''Levantine Basin'''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isprs.org/publications/related/ISRSE/html/papers/427.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-07-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717201058/http://www.isprs.org/publications/related/ISRSE/html/papers/427.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-17 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ciesm.org/online/archives/abstracts/PDF/39//PG_0116.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-02-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718153411/http://www.ciesm.org/online/archives/abstracts/PDF/39//PG_0116.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-18 }}</ref>

To the west of the Levantine Deep Marine Basin is the [Nile Delta](/source/Nile_Delta) Basin, followed by the [Herodotus Basin](/source/Herodotus_Basin), {{cvt|130000|km2}} large and up to {{cvt|3200|m}} deep,<ref>[http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2014/10617liu/ndx_liu.pdf#page=2 Hydrocarbon Potential in Herodotus Basin, Eastern Mediterranean], p. 2</ref> which – at a possible age of 340 million years – is believed to be the oldest known ocean crust worldwide.<ref>[http://in.bgu.ac.il/en/Pages/news/Palaeozoic-oceanic-crust.aspx Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: Three Hundred Million Years Under the Sea]</ref>

==Ecology==
{{main|Mediterranean Sea|River Nile|Lake Nasser|Lessepsian migration}}
The [Suez Canal](/source/Suez_Canal) was completed in 1869, linking the Levantine Sea to the [Red Sea](/source/Red_Sea) &ndash; and mainly for large vessels. The Red Sea sits a little higher than the [Eastern Mediterranean](/source/Eastern_Mediterranean), so the canal is an intermittent [tidal strait](/source/tidal_strait) discharging water into the Mediterranean. The [Bitter Lakes](/source/Bitter_Lakes) &ndash; [hypersaline](/source/hypersaline) natural lakes, interacting with the canal &ndash; were a bar to migration of Red Sea species northward for many decades, but as their salinity has virtually equalized with that of the Red Sea, the barrier to migration was removed, and plants [and animals](/source/List_of_Lessepsian_migrant_species) from the Red Sea have begun to colonize the eastern Mediterranean. This is the [Lessepsian migration](/source/Lessepsian_migration), after [Ferdinand de Lesseps](/source/Ferdinand_de_Lesseps), the [chief engineer](/source/chief_engineer) of the canal.{{fact|date=April 2026}}

Most of the river discharge is from the [Nile](/source/Nile_River). Since the [Aswan High Dam](/source/Aswan_High_Dam) sits across the river in the 1960s it has facilitated the multiplication of Egyptian agriculture and population. It has reduced, to the sea, the flow of [freshwater](/source/Fresh_water), mountainous minerals in the [silt](/source/silt), and the distance traveled by silt (before this, borne by floodwater). This makes the sea slightly saltier and [nutrient](/source/nutrient)[-poorer](/source/Poorer) than before. This has decimated the morning [sardine](/source/sardine) litorine haul in nets but favored many Red Sea species.{{fact|date=April 2026}}

==See also==
*[Eastern Mediterranean](/source/Eastern_Mediterranean)
*[Levant](/source/Levant)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Kubin, Elisabeth; Poulain, Pierre-Marie; Mauri, Elena; Menna, Milena; Notarstefano, Giulio. 2019. "Levantine Intermediate and Levantine Deep Water Formation: An Argo Float Study from 2001 to 2017" Water 11, no. 9: 1781. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11091781 
*Özsoy, E. and H. Güngör (1993). The Northern Levantine Sea Circulation Based on Combined Analysis of CTD and ADCP Data, In: P. Brasseur (editor), Data Assimilation: Tools for Modelling the Ocean in a Global Change Perspective, NATO ASI Series, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
*Sur, H. İ., Özsoy, E., and Ü. Ünlüata, (1992). Simultaneous Deep and Intermediate Depth Convection in the Northern Levantine Sea, Winter 1992, Ocean.

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|Levantine Sea}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110717201058/http://www.isprs.org/publications/related/ISRSE/html/papers/427.pdf Study and Analysis of Water Masses Formation in the Levantine Sea]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20180323053829/http://med-lter.haifa.ac.il/index.php/departments Long Term Ecological Research]

{{List of seas}}
{{List of African seas}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Marginal seas of the Mediterranean
Category:Seas of Turkey
Category:Bodies of water of Syria
Category:Bodies of water of Lebanon
Category:Bodies of water of Israel
Category:Bodies of water of Egypt
Category:Bodies of water of Libya
Category:Ecoregions of Cyprus
Category:Ecoregions of Egypt
Category:Ecoregions of Greece
Category:Ecoregions of Israel
Category:Ecoregions of Lebanon
Category:Ecoregions of Syria
Category:Ecoregions of Turkey
Category:Seas of Africa
Category:Seas of Asia
Category:European seas

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Levantine Sea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levantine_Sea) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levantine_Sea?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.