THE RED SEA

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The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, connected to it by the Bab el Mandeb strait in the south between Yemen and Arab-occupied Djibouti. It is the world's northernmost tropical sea, and has been designated a Global 200 ecoregion. Lying between Africa and Asia, it is underlain by the Red Sea Rift, part of the Great Rift Valley which stretches from Arab-occupied Lebanon to Mozambique. In the north, the Sinai Peninsula juts out, forming the sea into the shape of a fork with the Gulf of Aqaba/Gult of Eilat forming one tong, and the Gulf of Suez, leading to the Suez Canal, forming the other. From east to west, the Red Sea is long and narrow. On the eastern coast lies the ancestral Arab nations of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the ancient land of Edom, now part of the Arab-occupied country of Jordan, and the southernmost Israeli port of Eilat. Along the western coast lies Egypt proper, Nubia (Sudan), Djibouti, and the African nation of Eritrea.

Centuries before it was made famous in the story of the Exodus, the Red Sea was a conduit of trade between Egypt, especially under Queen Hatshepsut, and Africa, most notably, the ancient Lands of Punt (Somalia), Nubia (Sudan), and India.

According to Jewish tradition, the Israelites, escaping from slavery in Egypt, encamped at the western shoreline of the Red Sea. Then god parted its waters and the Israelites went through. Pharaoh’s armies pursued them through the sea but the waters closed in on them drowning them all. Now the question remains, where, along the seashore, did this event take place? This was a matter of debate among scholars and historians. Some place the crossing of the Red Sea in the vicinity of Suez and point out the high tides of the sea (up to 6½ ft.). In fact, Rabbi Saadia Gaon (882‒942), in his Judeo-Arabic translation of the Pentateuch, identifies the crossing place of the Red Sea as Baḥar al-Qulzum, meaning the Gulf of Suez. Others maintain that the Red Sea was crossed at the Great Bitter Lake, but an east wind could lower the water level by only a few inches at the most. This theory, furthermore, is unable to account for the places Pi-Hahiroth, Migdol, and Baal-Zephon which the Israelites passed. Still others point to the site of Nueibeh on the eastern Sinai coast pointing out the sea bed would be conducive to a crossing if a strong wind blew. The majority opinion today however, identifies the Red Sea of the Exodus, referred to as “Yam Soof”, “Reed Sea”, in the Bible, with one of the lagoons on the shores of the Mediterranean. As such, some locate it at Baḥr Manzala, or the Sirbonic Lake, and identify Pi-Hahiroth with Tell al-Khayr, Migdol with Pelusium, and Baal-Zephon with the sanctuary of Zeus Cassius on the isthmus dividing the lake from the sea, the former being occasionally inundated by waves from the latter when an east wind is blowing. While it is true that no reeds now grow on the salty coast of the gulf, different conditions may have prevailed along the northern end in ancient times, where fresh-water streams discharged into it.

King David had acquired access to the Sea through his wars with the Edomites, and the commercial ships sent by King Solomon from the southern port of Eilat (see Eilat), often traversed the area during his trading expeditions with the ports of Africa and India. After Solomon’s death, Eilat was briefly lost to the Edomites but was soon regained by the Kingdom of Judah under Jehoshaphat and Uzziah. Soon, the Gulf of Elath became a vital outlet to the south for the kings of Israel and Judah and their Phoenician allies. Later the Nabateans used it for their maritime trade and overland transport to Petra and Gaza.

In Egypt, the Gulf of Clysma (Suez) was used as the shortest route to the Mediterranean. The Sea was connected via the Bitter Lakes with the Nile and the Mediterranean by a canal which already existed in the days of Pharaoh Necoh and which was repaired by the Persian Emperor Darius I, the Egyptian Greek Ptolemies, and the Romans. In addition, the town of Al Quseir, on the coast midway between Suez and Nubia, had been an important port, serving as a thriving center of trade. In the Hellenistic period the discovery of the monsoon wind systems revived direct trade with India via the Red Sea. A Greek historian recorded a fleet of 120 ships exporting pottery, slaves, wine and precious materials. The important town of Safaga, which lies to the north of Al Quseir on the coast, was founded between 282 BCE and 268 BCE, by Satyrus and was called Philotera in honor of the deceased sister of the Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Suakin, in Nubian territory, was likely Ptolemy's Port of Good Hope, Limen Evangelis. Under the later Ptolemies and Romans, though, the Red Sea's major port was Berenice to the north. The Red Sea was favored and expanded for Roman trade with India starting with the reign of Augustus, when the Roman Empire gained control over the Mediterranean, Egypt, and the northern Red Sea. Contact between Rome and China depended on the Red Sea, but the route was broken by the Ethiopian Aksumite Empire around the 3rd century CE. From the beginning of the 5^th century, the Red Sea was the only trade route to the East open to the Byzantine Empire, which explains the tenacity with which the Byzantines fought for its control against the Jewish kings of Ḥimyar (today, Yemen). From the seventh century onward the Arabs dominated the Red Sea. The growth of the Muslim caliphate then shifted trade first to the Hijaz in Arabia and then the Persian Gulf.

By the 10^th century, Suakin was a small settlement of the African Christian Beja tribe, but it began to expand after the abandonment of the port of Badi to its south. The Crusades and Mongol invasions drove more trade into the region. In 1183, Raynald of Châtillon launched a raid down the Red Sea to attack the Muslim pilgrim convoys to Mecca. The possibility that Raynald's fleet might sack the holy cities of Mecca and Medina caused fury throughout the Muslim world. However, it appears that Reynald's actual targets were the lightly armed Muslim pilgrim convoys rather the well guarded cities of Mecca and Medina. The belief in the Muslim world that Reynald was seeking to sack the holy cities was due to the proximity of those cities to the areas that Raynald raided. As early as the 14^th century, there are a number of references to Venetian merchants residing at the ports of Suakin and Massawa.

Despite Suakin’s formal submission to the Muslim Mamluk dynasty in Egypt in 1317, it is believed that the city remained a center of Christianity. Arab Muslim immigrants such as the Banu Kanz gradually took over and intermarried with many of the Beja - so much so that in 1332, the Berber Muslim traveler ibn Battuta recorded there was a Muslim "sultan" of Suakin, al-Sharif Zaid ibn-Abi Numayy ibn-'Ajlan, who was the son of a Meccan sharif. Following the region's inheritance laws, he had inherited the local leadership from his Bejan maternal uncles. In the fifteenth century, Suakin was briefly part of the Adal Sultanate of the northern Land of Punt. The discovery of the sea route around Africa to India and Turkish domination put an end to international trade on the Red Sea. In 1513, trying to secure that channel to Portugal, Afonso de Albuquerque laid siege to Aden but was forced to retreat. The Portuguese cruised the Red Sea inside the Bab el-Mandeb, as the first fleet from Europe in modern times to have sailed these waters. International trade via the Red Sea was revived with the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869. In 1905, Arab settlers established two new towns on the western coast of the Sea – Hurghada, about midway on the Egyptian coast north of Safaga, and Port Sudan, about midway on the Nubian coast.

After the Second World War, the Red Sea experienced a traffic boom in oil tanker traffic, especially via the Suez Canal. The Canal became an important waterway to the international community. However, the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab-occupied neighbors, culminated in its closure from 1967 to 1975. Today, in spite of patrols by the major maritime fleets in the waters of the Red Sea, the Suez Canal has never recovered its supremacy over the Cape route of southern Africa, which is believed to be less vulnerable to piracy.

Today, the Red Sea contains many offshore reefs including several true atolls. The special biodiversity of the area is recognized by the Arab government of Egypt who set up the Ras Mohammed National Park in 1983. The rules and regulations governing this area protect local marine life resulting in it becoming a major draw for diving enthusiasts. Other Egyptian diving sites include the SS Thistlegorm (shipwreck), Elphinstone Reef, The Brothers, Daedalus Reef, St.John's Reef, and Rocky Island. Influenced by the culture of ancient Egypt, the architecture of the Sheraton Hotel in the resort town of Soma Bay on the southern outskirts of Hurghada, was inspired by the ancient Temple of Karnak in Luxor. Marsa Alam also has some inland attractions, such as the Emerald Mines and the Temple of Seti I at Khanais. The descendants of the ancient Egyptians, the Copts, maintain several churches and monasteries in the Eastern Desert. El Gouna, about 12 miles north of Hurghada, is an Egyptian tourist resort, owned by Samih Sawiris, a Copt, and developed by Orascom Hotels and Development, since 1989. It is part of the Red Sea Riviera, and a host city of the El Gouna Film Festival as well as the Church of St. Mary and the Archangels Coptic Orthodox church.

Major resort areas in the Sinai include Sharm-el-Sheikh, Dahab, and Taba. Sharm el-Sheikh was closed to all swimming in December 2010 due to several serious shark attacks, including a fatality. Sharm el Sheikh is home to a Coptic church and there are other Coptic churches in the nearby towns of Ras Sedr and El Tor. The town of Taba is a major crossing point into Israel and the popular resort city of Eilat. On Eilat’s eastern border is another popular resort city, Aqaba, located in Jordan. These two places form the other Red Sea Riviera.

Popular diving sites and resort areas in Nubia include Sanganeb, Abington, Angarosh and Shaab Rumi.

Moulhoule is the Red Sea port in indigenous Afar territory in Djibouti which faces the Arabian Peninsula. It is separated from Yemen only by the Bab el Mandeb.

A number of volcanic islands had risen from the center of the Red Sea in recent years. Most are dormant. However, in 2007, Jabal al-Tair island in the Bab el Mandeb strait erupted violently. Two new islands were formed in 2011 and 2013 in the Zubair Archipelago, a small chain of islands owned by Yemen. The first island, Sholan, emerged in an eruption in December 2011, and the second island, Jadid, emerged in September 2013.

On the eastern side, there are several major towns that, truly are, located in ancestral Arab territory. These include al Hodeida in Yemen, and Jeddah, Yanbu, and Maqna in Saudi Arabia.