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Aegean Sea....
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The Aegean Sea region was the home of two of the world's earliest
civilizations - the Minoan Civilization of
Crete, and the great
intellectual and military empire of Greece (see Ancient Empires - Greece).
It was also of course the scene for much of the earliest growth of
Christianity. There has been considerable
tension between Greece and Turkey since the 1970s
over oil deposits and mineral rights in the Aegean. The name
Aegean has been variously derived from Aegae,
a city from Aegeus, father of Theseus, who drowned himself in the sea
believing his son had been slain by the Minotaur.
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From Aegea, an Amazon queen who drowned in it. The sea's
ancient name, Archipelago, now applies to its islands and, generally, to any
island group. The Aegean Sea is located between the
Greek peninsula on
the west, and Turkey to the east. It is actually a northern arm of The
Mediterranean Sea, with
Crete forming a geographical division. It is
connected to the Black Sea to the north through the Dardanelles, the Sea of
Marmara and the Bosporus. The Aegean is about 375 miles (600 kilometers)
long and 200 miles (325 kilometers) wide, with a total area of approximately
82,600 square miles (214,000 square kilometers). |
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It has many islands, large and small, but perhaps the
best-known is The Island Of Patmos, in the eastern section just off the
coast of Turkey. It was there that The Apostle John wrote the Book of
Revelation - one of the most spectacular of all Bible
Prophecy. |
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Aegean Sea Ephesus
Shoreline
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The apostle Paul traveled widely
through and around the Aegean. From St. Paul himself we know that he was
born at Tarsus in Cilicia (Acts, xxi, 39), of a father who was a
Roman citizen (Acts, xxii, 26-28; cf. xvi,
37), of a family in which piety was hereditary and which was much attached
to Pharisaic traditions and observances (Phil., iii, 5-6). St. Jerome
relates, on what ground is not known, that his parents were natives of
Gischala, a small town of Galilee and that they brought him to Tarsus when
Gischala was captured by the Romans. |
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