Major Straits of the World

Part 6

Straits of Mediterranean Sea

Bosphorus Strait:

• Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Turkey.
• It forms part of the continental boundary between Asia and Europe, and divides Turkey by separating Anatolia from Thrace.
• It is the world’s narrowest strait used for international navigation.
• The Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles Strait at the opposite end of the Sea of Marmara are together known as the Turkish Straits.

Dardanelles Strait:

• Dardanelles also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey.
• It forms part of the continental boundary between Asia and Europe and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey.
• Together with the Bosporus, the Dardanelles forms the Turkish Straits.
• Dardanelles connects the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean and Mediterranean seas while also allowing passage to the Black Sea by extension via the Bosporus.
• The first fixed crossing across the Dardanelles opened in 2022 with the completion of the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge.

Strait of Messina:

• Strait of Messina is a narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily (Punta del Faro) and the western tip of Calabria (Punta Pezzo) in Southern Italy.
• It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north with the Ionian Sea to the south, within the central Mediterranean.
• A natural whirlpool in the northern portion of the strait has been linked to the Greek legend of Scylla and Charybdis.
• In 1957, a 220 kV overhead power line was built across the Strait of Messina.
• Its pylons are among the highest in the world.
• This power line has since been replaced by a submarine power cable, but the pylons remain and are protected as historical monuments.

Strait of Otranto:

• The Strait of Otranto connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and separates Italy from Albania.
• During World War I, the strait was of strategic significance.
• The Allied navies of Italy, France, and Great Britain, by blockading the strait, hindered the Austro-Hungarian Navy from freely entering the Mediterranean Sea.
• The blockade was known as the ‘Otranto Barrage’.

Strait of Sicily:

• The Strait of Sicily is the strait between Sicily and Tunisia.
• The strait divides the Tyrrhenian Sea and the western Mediterranean Sea, from the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
• Deep currents in the strait flow from east to west, and the current nearer the surface travels from west to east.