Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea (Greek Aigaion Pelagos), arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Asia Minor. The name is variously explained in writings of antiquity as derived from Aegeus, king of Athens and father of Theseus, or from Aegea, a queen of the Amazons who drowned in the sea, or from an ancient Greek town named Aegae. The Aegean Sea is 600 km (400 mi) long and 300 km (200 mi) wide. It is connected with the Sea of Marmara to the northeast by the Dardanelles Strait. The Aegean Sea is irregular in outline with numerous gulfs, and is studded with islands, including the Sporades, Cyclades (Kikládhes), and Dodecanese. It was the center of one of the earliest known European civilizations. With the rise of the ancient Greek and Middle Eastern cultures, the lands surrounding the sea became the sites of widely differing civilizations, and the culture of the Aegean islands became identified with that of Greece.