Red Sea: A Wonder of Nature

Is really red Colored sea exist? Where it is?

Yes, the Red sea exists and it is one of the wonders of nature. The color of the sea is actually an intense turquoise. It is situated in between Africa and Asia and is a salt intel of the Indian Ocean. Red sea rift, a part of the Great Rift Valley is underlined by this great sea.

There is a direct translation of “The Red Sea” according to its Greek name, Erythra Thalassa. It is also called the sea of Reeds because of the reeds of the Gulf of Suez. In Egypt, the sea is called “Red Land”.

The history of this sea is very interesting. A group of ancient Egyptians made attempted to establish commercial routes to Punt and by this, the sea was explored. There are two expeditions, one is from 2500 BC and the other is from 1500 BC. The 1st  traditional identification of the sea was made by Yam Suph. In earlier ages this sea has great importance in the connection and supplement of goods, for example- The Roman world introduced Indian port goods which came from China by this sea. This connection between the two big countries is dependent on the Red sea and it was broken by the Aksumite Empire around the 3rd century.

In the middle ages, this sea holds an important part of the spice trade. Many historical events occurred in this sea and several canals were built from the Nile to this sea, but none of them lasted for a long time. After the 2nd world war, Americans and Soviets tried to influence. But after all this, the Suez Canal has never recovered its supremacy over the Cape route.

This sea is situated in between arid, desert, and semi-desert land. The reef systems are better developed. It exchanges its water with the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The climate of the sea is another interesting part which is the result of two monsoons- a northeasterly and a southwesterly monsoon. It has a very high surface temperature and high salinity which makes this one of the warmest and saltiest bodies of seawater in the world.

Now the question is why the sea is Red?

Undoubtedly, this sea is one of the warmest, saltiest, and mainly reddest seas which is filled with blooms of cyanobacteria algae called, Trichodesmium erythraeum. For this algae the water turns into blue-green water, reddish-brown. Though the color is not that intense and varies across the expansive body of water.

Here is a picture of red algae, when these algae die off their appearance turns to blue-green color which makes the ocean reddish-brown.

• Some interesting facts about The Red Sea-
• The depth of the sea is more than 2800 meters, around 40％ of the area of the sea lies under 100 meters while 25％ is shallower at less than 50 meters.
• The weather around the sea follows a general pattern throughout the year, colder in winter and warmer in summer.
• The Red sea is very rich in biodiversity, its biodiversity is one of its greatest assets. The sea has some of the most impressive marine and coastal environments, spectacular fauna and flora, an innumerable number of fishes, and some stunning coral reefs around mangroves, sea-grass beds, saltpans, and marshes. The coral reefs are up to 7000 years old.
• The sea is the most saline open sea in the world and the salinity of the water is approximately 38％.
• Another unique fact about the  Sea is there is no river that can flow into it. The sediment makes its way to the sea in various ways other than rivers. There are small coral fragments, mollusks, and algae are found in coastal sediments.
• The sea has a major hot spot for scuba diving and snorkeling.