The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden. In the north are the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba or the Gulf of Eilat and the Gulf of Suez (leading to the Suez Canal).
Occupying a part of the Great Rift Valley, the Red Sea has a surface area of roughly 174,000 square miles (450,000 km²): being roughly 1,200 miles (1,900 km) long and, at its widest point, over 190 miles (300 km) wide. It has a maximum depth of 8,200 feet (2,500 m) in the central median trench and an average depth of 1,640 feet (500 m), but there are also extensive shallow shelves, noted for their marine life and corals. The sea is the habitat of over 1,000 invertebrate species and 200 soft and hard corals and is the world's most northern tropical sea.
The Red Sea is regarded as one of the most saline water bodies in the world that is governed by the effects of the water circulation pattern, resulting from evaporation and wind stress in the Red Sea. Salinity ranges between 36 and 38 ‰.
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