About the Bab-El-Mandeb Strait:
- It is a strait of great strategic and economic importance, connecting the Red Sea in the northwest to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in the southeast.
- It also separates Arabia, in the northeast, from the African continent, in the southwest.
- It further acts as a link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
- The name of the strait, Bab El-Mandeb means “Gate of Tears” in Arabic, referring to the large number of shipwrecks that have occurred in this region.
- The strait is 30 kilometres (KM) wide and is divided into two channels by the Yemeni island of Perim, with the eastern channel being called Alexander’s Strait and is around 3 kilometres wide, while the western-lying Dact-el-Mayun Channel is 26 kilometres wide.
- The flow through this strait provides for the circulation between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, since no flow takes place through the Suez Canal.
