About Bab el-Mandeb Strait:
- It is also known as the “Gate of Tears” in Arabic, referring to the large number of shipwrecks that have occurred in this region.
- Location: It lies at the southern tip of the Red Sea, between Yemen and the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and further to the Indian Ocean.
- It also separates Arabia, in the northeast, from the African continent, in the southwest.
- It acts as a link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
- The strait is 30 kilometers (KM) wide and is divided into two channels by the Yemeni island of Perim, with the eastern channel being called Alexander’s Strait, and the western channel called the Dact-el-Mayun Channel.
- Significance: It is a crucial link in the trade route connecting the Mediterranean to Asia.
- Ships transporting goods between Europe and Asia, as well as Middle Eastern oil bound for Europe and North America, pass through it when using Egypt’s Suez Canal.
