Seven Seas

The seas are considered to be the place where life began. For people living on land, the seas, lakes, and large rivers are important living spaces, trade areas, and sources of curiosity for exploration, as well as places of fear and protection from the sea itself and sea-related disasters and wars.

In past and present cultures, the term “Seven Seas” refers to regional bodies of water, exotic bodies of water, or bodies of water used as trade routes.

The term “Seven Seas” is frequently used in ancient Chinese, Indian, Roman, and Persian literature. Societies in this region engaged in exploration voyages, forced voyages, trade, and piracy in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean long before the modern concept of oceans emerged.

The list of bodies of water included in the “Seven Seas” varies from culture to culture and over time. In some regions, large lakes and rivers have been included in this expression. The number of seas is not actually “seven,” but in some cultures, it is used to mean “many” or “a lot.”

The geography we inhabit is an area where the cultures of North and East Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Eurasia intertwine, and various legends and tales related to the seas have been produced since ancient times. In the “Seven Seas” tale from the widely known “One Thousand and One Nights” tales, the sailor Sinbad narrates the stories of sea pirates and societies’ relationships with the sea.

In ancient times, the term “Seven Seas” represented the commercial sea routes accessible to some societies, while in others it was used to denote the known seas, bays, gulfs, and certain parts of the oceans that were accessible to them. In another geography, it referred to distant and strange waterways. In fact, the term “Seven Seas” was even used to denote seas that did not exist.

In ancient times, for the Persians, the term “Seven Seas” included the rivers that form the Oxus River. According to the Jewish religious book, the Babylonian Talmud, the lands of present-day Palestine and Israel are surrounded by the “Seven Seas” and four rivers. The Seven Seas are: the Sea of Galilee (Sea of Galilee/Tiberias or Lake Kinneret), the Dead Sea (Lake Lut), the Red Sea, Lake Hula, the Sea of Aspamya, Lake Birkat Ram, and the Mediterranean Sea.

According to the Arabs and their neighbors in the Middle Ages, the “Seven Seas” were the seas in the East that facilitated trade and were the sites of religious and commercial naval battles. These are the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, the Strait of Singapore, the Strait of Malacca (a narrow strait 805 km long between Sumatra Island and the Malay Peninsula), the South China Sea, and the Persian Gulf. For the Greeks, the Seven Seas were the Caspian Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf.

For the interior and southeastern parts of the European continent, the term “Seven Seas” refers to the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Adriatic Sea, the discoveries, invasions, and commercial and religious wars of Northern and Western European societies, beginning with North America, added the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean (North Ice Sea), the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea to the Seven Seas.

Today, since the 19th century, the term “Seven Seas” refers to the oceans divided into five geographical regions. These are the Atlantic, Pacific (Great), Indian, and Arctic Oceans, with the Southern Ocean added later.

Compilation and Citations

 

With contributions from Nalan Yüksel…