Gulf of Aqaba

From New World Encyclopedia
Sinai Peninsula, with the Gulf of Aqaba (east) and the Gulf of Suez (west), as viewed from the Space Shuttle STS-40.

The Gulf of Aqaba (Arabic: خليج العقبة; transliterated: Khalyj al-'Aqabah), in Israel known as the Gulf of Eilat (Hebrew: מפרץ אילת, transliterated: Mifratz Eilat) is a large gulf of the Red Sea. It is located to the east of the Sinai peninsula and west of the Arabian mainland. Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia all have coastlines on the Gulf of Aqaba. The Gulf serves as a hinge connecting the African and Asian continents.

The Gulf of Aqaba, like the coastal waters of the Red Sea, is one of the world's premier sites for diving.The area is especially rich in coral and other marine biodiversity and contains a number of underwater wrecks, some accidental shipwrecks, others vessels deliberately sunk in an effort to provide a habitat for marine organisms and bolster the local dive tourism industry.


Geography

The Gulf of Aqaba is one of two gulfs created by the Sinai Peninsula's bifurcation of the northern Red Sea; the Gulf of Suez lying to the west of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gulf of Aqaba lying to its east. It varies in width from 12 to 17 miles (19 to 27 km) and is 110 miles (177 km) long.

Geologically, the Gulf of Aqaba is an integral part of the Great Rift Valley, a geographical and geological feature running north to south for around 4,000 miles (6,400 km), from northern Syria to central Mozambique in East Africa. Created by seismic activity along the Afro-Syrian Rift, it is a deep narrow body of water, which astronauts say is the most significant physical detail on the planet that is visible from space.

The Gulf of Aqaba measures 27 km at its widest point and stretches some 160 km north from the Straits of Tiran to a point where the border of Israel meets the borders of Egypt and Jordan. At this northern end of the Gulf are three important cities: Taba in Egypt, Eilat in Israel, and Aqaba in Jordan. All three cities serve both as strategically important commercial ports and as popular resort destinations for tourists seeking to enjoy the warm climate of the region. Further south, Haql is the largest Saudi Arabian city on the gulf. On Sinai, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab are the major centers.

HERE

Refer to Gulf of Aden article for guidelines.

Environment

File:Saudi Arabia map.jpg
map of Red Sea showing Gulf of Aqaba at its northern end


http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Regional%20Projects/Gulf%20of%20Aqaba-%20Environment



The Gulf of Aqaba (180 km long, 20 km wide) is a semi-enclosed sea with unique natural and physical features, foremost of which is its coral reef ecosystem, one of the northernmost and most diverse in the world. Yet this highly sensitive ecosystem is threatened by myriad activitiestourism and sport fishing, commercial fishing, shipping of oil and other hazardous materials, wastewater and solid waste disposal, mariculture and industrial development.

Cities

The cities of Taba in Egypt, Eilat in Israel, and Aqaba in Jordan are the three major cities located on the Gulf of Aqaba.

Taba, Egypt

  • Taba is a small Egyptian town near the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba and is Egypt's busiest border crossing with neighboring Israel. It was the last portion of Sinai to be returned to Egypt under the terms of the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

Taba was on the Egyptian side of the armistice line agreed to in 1949, and returned to Egypt when Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1957. However, when Israel reoccupied the Sinai after the Six-Day War (1967), a 400-room hotel was built at Taba. When Egypt and Israel were negotiating the exact position of the border in preparation for the 1979 peace treaty, Israel claimed that Taba had been on the Ottoman side of a border agreed between the Ottomans and British Egypt in 1906 and had, therefore, been in error in its two previous agreements. After a long dispute, the issue was submitted to an international commission composed of one Israeli, one Egyptian, and three outsiders. In 1988, the commission ruled in Egypt's favor, and Israel returned Taba to Egypt later that year.

As part of this subsequent agreement, travellers are permitted to cross from Israel at the Eilat - Taba border crossing, and visit the "Aqaba Coast Area of Sinai", ( stretching from Taba down to Sharm el Sheikh, and including Nuweiba, St Catherine and Dahab ), visa-free for up to 14 days, making Taba a popular tourist destination. The resort community of Taba Heights is located some 20 km south of Taba. It features several large hotels, including The Hyatt Regency, Marriott, Sofitel and Intercontinental. It is also a significant diving area where many people come to either free dive, scuba dive or learn to dive via the many PADI courses on offer. Other recreation facilities include a new desert style golf course.

Little more than a bus depot and a luxury hotel (complete with casino), Taba is a frequent vacation spot for Egyptians and tourists, especially those from Israel on their way to others destinations in Egypt or as a weekend getaway. It is the northernmost resort of Egypt's Red Sea Riviera.

Eilat, Israel

Aqaba, Jordan=

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/aqaba.html

Straits of Tiran

Straits of Tiran

The Straits of Tiran (Arabic: مضيق تيران, Hebrew: מיצרי טיראן), are the narrow sea passages, about 8 miles (13 km) wide, between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas which separates the Gulf of Aqaba from the Red Sea. It is named after Tiran Island located at its inflow, on which the Multinational Force and Observers has an observation post to monitor the compliance of Egypt in maintaining freedom of navigation of the straits as provided under the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

Sanafir Island lies to the east of Tiran, southeast of the shallow strait between Tiran and Saudi Arabia.

Access to Jordan's only seaport of Aqaba and to Israel's only Indian Ocean seaport of Eilat is contingent upon passage through the Gulf of Aqaba, giving the Straits of Tiran strategic importance. Egypt's blockade of the Straits to Israeli ships and ships bound for Israel in 1956 and again in 1967 was a catalyst to the Suez Crisis in 1956 and the Six-Day War in 1967.

International documents inconsistently refer to both the "Straits of Tiran" and the "Strait of Tiran". There are several passages formed by the islands between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The westernmost strait, between Egypt and the island of Tiran, overlooked by the Egyptian city Sharm el-Sheikh is the "Strait of Tiran". It has two passages deep enough to be navigable by large ships. The Enterprise passage, 950 feet (290 m) deep, is right next to the Egyptian side, while the 240-foot-deep Grafton passage, surrounded by shallows, is to the east, nearer to the island of Tiran. To the east of Tiran, between it and Saudi Arabia, the other strait has reefs and shallows with a single channel 54 feet (16 m) deep.[1][2]

A project to build a 9.3-mile (15.0 km) bridge across the straits, linking Egypt and Saudi Arabia, is under consideration by the Egyptian government. A bridge at this point would bypass Israel, which physically stands between the Arab lands of Africa and the Arab lands of Southwest Asia. [3]


Amateur archaeologist Ron Wyatt claimed to have discovered evidence that the Gulf of Aqaba was the body of water crossed by Moses during the Passage of the Red Sea as told in the Book of Exodus. He based this on the fact that Egyptian chariots wheels were found 2/3 of the way up the gulf deep in the water. No recognised Egyptologists have backed up this fact as of yet. A shallow "land bridge" spans the gulf near Nuweiba, which is reputed by some of Wyatt's school of thought to be the site of the Passage of the Red Sea.[4]

Colin Humphreys, University of Cambridge Scientist, has also concluded that the crossing of the Red Sea described in Exodus 14 took place at the Gulf of Aquaba. [5]

An Egyptian naval blockade against all Israeli shipping through the Straits of Tiran (the southern opening of this gulf) was the immediate cause of the 1967 Six Day War.[6]

Notes

  1. Oren, Michael B. 2002. Six days of war: June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195151749
  2. Carl F. Salans. 1968. "Gulf of Aqaba and Strait of Tiran: Troubled Waters." United States Naval Institute Proceedings Magazine. volume 94. issue 56.
  3. Najla Moussa. March 2, 2006. Bridge connecting Egypt, Saudi Arabia considered Daily News Egypt. Retrieved October 31, 2008.
  4. Kovacs, Joe. Pharaoh's chariots found in Red Sea?. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  5. Humphreys, Colin, The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist's Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories, San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2003.
  6. JewishVirtualLibrary.org: "Egypt reinstates blockade"

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees


External links

Coordinates: 28°41′10″N 34°41′44″E / 28.68611, 34.69556


Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.