Tyrrhenian Sea

Tyrrhenian Sea

Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the west coast of Italy, between the Apennine Peninsula (Italian provinces of Tuscany, Lazio, Campania and Calabria) and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. To the southeast are the Lipari (Aeolian) Islands.

General information

The Tyrrhenian Sea is a tectonic basin, up to 3,719 m deep in the central part. In the area of the sea there is a seismic fault between Europe and Africa, hence a chain of underwater mountain peaks and active volcanoes (Vesuvius, Stromboli, etc.)

The sea is connected to other parts of the Mediterranean Sea by straits:

• The Corsica Channel in the north, between Italy and the island of Corsica, approximately 80 kilometers wide;
• Bonifacio (the Strait of Bonifacio) in the west, between Corsica and Sardinia, 11 kilometers wide;
• The Sardinian in the south, between Sardinia and Tunisia, approximately 200 km wide;
• Sicilian (the Strait of Sicily), between Sicily and Tunisia, in the southwest (160 km) and Messina (the Strait of Messina) in the southeast (3 km).

The main ports are Naples, Palermo, Cagliari (Italy), Bastia (France).

The name of the sea comes from the word tyrrhenoi (tyrsenoi), which the ancient Greeks called the natives of Lydia (Asia Minor), who moved to the Apennine Peninsula in the area of the current Italian province of Tuscany. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Lydian king Tirren, after several years of crop failures and famine, led some of his people westward in search of a new homeland. The Lydians landed on the western coast of the Apennine Peninsula and, having taken possession of the new lands, began to be called by the name of their leader – Tyrrhenes (in ancient Rome they were called Etruscans). By the name of this people began to be called and that part of the Mediterranean Sea, on the coast of which they lived for many centuries.

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The ancient Romans also called this sea Mare inferum – Lower Sea, as opposed to Mare superum – Upper Sea (Adriatic Sea).