Black Sea

THE BLACK SEA IS a body of salt water that stretches 630 mi (1,014 km) from east to west. TURKEY faces its southern shore, BULGARIA and ROMANIA lie west of the Black Sea, and UKRAINE, RUSSIA, and GEORGIA border it to the north, northeast, and east, respectively. The Black Sea stretches 330 mi (530 km) from north to south, except between the Crimean Peninsula and Turkey, where it cinches to 144 mi (232 km).

From the southwest, the Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and to the north, just east of the Crimean Peninsula, the Kerch Strait leads to the Sea of Azov. The CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS line the northeastern edge of the Black Sea; the Pontic Mountains are to the south. The Black Sea is usually considered the boundary between Europe and Asia. At its deepest point, the Black Sea reaches a depth of 7,218 ft (2,200 m). It has an area of 262,840 square mi (683,000 square km). Below 660 ft (200 m), the water holds no oxygen, and the Black Sea is therefore the largest anoxic basin in world, with about 90 percent of its water permanently anaerobic. The Black Sea figures in myth and history, dating back thousands of years. In the Voyage of the Argonauts, Jason sails through the narrow Bosporus, with shifting walls that threaten to crush his ship, into the Black Sea.

The sea, named “black” by the Turks for its storms, was the trade passage to Asia for the Egyptians and Greeks. It was important to the growth of Byzantium (now Istanbul) from 600 B.C.E. through the time of the Crusades, when the Byzantine Empire was finally destroyed. The Ottoman Turks controlled the Black Sea from 1453 to 1774.