Potemkin's Army of Ekaterinoslav, totaling, it was claimed, 40,000 regular troops and 6,000 irregulars of the Cossack Corps, had invested Islam's principal stronghold on the north shore of the Black Sea, the fortress town of Oczakov, and was preparing to test the Turk by land and sea.

The Black Sands, as the contrasting name would suggest, have a rockier and darker sand, and are also popular with visitors exploring the rock caves and fascinating sea life.

The Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea, perhaps the largest body of brackish water in the world ( other possibilities include the Black Sea, Hudson Bay and the Caspian Sea ).

For the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the ' Hospitable sea ', Euxeinos Pontos ().

It is thought by some that the channels in the Black Sea were formed around 6, 000 years ago when sea levels were approaching their current point.

During the late 2nd century, the main ethnic change in the northern Black sea region was the immigration, from the Vistula valley in the North, of the Goths and accompanying Germanic tribes such as the Taifali and the Hasdingi, a branch of the Vandal people.

By the 3rd century, the Goths ruled a vast area north of the Black Sea from where they either through crossing the lower Danube or traveling by sea, raided the Balkan Peninsula and Anatolia as far as Cyprus.

# The Black sea straits.

As a Fisherman, a Thief and other locals relate the sight of the " Four Black Dragons " roaring through the sea, an extravagant Oriental caricature of the USS Powhatan pulls into harbor.

The major geographical changes during this time period included the emergence of the Strait of Bosphorus and Skagerrak during glacial epochs, which respectively turned the Black Sea and Baltic Sea into fresh water, followed by their flooding ( and return to salt water ) by rising sea level ; the periodic filling of the English Channel, forming a land bridge between Britain and the European mainland ; the periodic closing of the Bering Strait, forming the land bridge between Asia and North America ; and the periodic flash flooding of Scablands of the American Northwest by glacial water.

The Sea of Marmara (, ), also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis (), is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts.

The salinity of the sea averages about 22 parts per thousand, which is slightly greater than that of the Black Sea but only about two-thirds that of most oceans.

Water from the Susurluk, Biga ( Granicus ) and Gonen Rivers also reduces the salinity of the sea, though with less influence than on the Black Sea.

The sea's ancient Greek name Propontis derives from pro ( before ) and pont-( sea ), deriving from the fact that the Greeks sailed through it to reach the Black Sea.

Coastline: Maritime claims: exclusive economic zone: in the Black Sea only: to the maritime boundary agreed upon with the former USSR territorial sea: in the Aegean Sea ; in Black Sea and in Mediterranean Sea

Black smokers or deep sea vents are an example of this kind of volcanic activity.

The Heruli ( spelled variously in Latin and Greek ) were an East Germanic tribe who migrated from Scandinavia to the Black sea in the third century.

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia ( for endonyms, see below ), is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea.

Therefore, these people that migrated to the coast of the Black sea received an identification as the " Goth " ( or the " God ") people after receiving the influence of the Gospel coming out of Jerusalem and Antioch, Syria.

* European hake ( Merluccius merluccius ) found in the Mediterranean and Black sea

* Black sea bass ( Centropristis striata ), whose range is the eastern coast of the United States

** Black sea bass, Centropristis striata.

* The Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea, alleged to be the largest body of brackish water in the world ( other possibilities include the Black Sea ).

In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus.

The dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of, then flows through the Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of 5 – 15 cm / s.

The Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland.

The Anatolian peninsula, also called Asia Minor, is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west, and the Sea of Marmara to the northwest, which separates Anatolia from Thrace in Europe.

The Bosphorus, which links the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, is about long and averages in width but narrows in places to less than.

The Turkish Straits connect the Black and Aegean Seas and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles.

The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, it connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara ( which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea.

Although it has been known for a while that the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara flow into each other in an example of a density flow, findings of a study by the University of Leeds in August 2010 reveal that there is in fact an underwater channel of high density water flowing across the floor of the Bosphorus ( caused by the difference in density of the two seas ), which would be the sixth largest river on Earth if it were to be on land.

The Black Sea deluge theory ( published in 1997 by William Ryan and Walter Pitman from Columbia University ) contends that the Bosphorus was formed about 5600 BC when the rising waters of the Mediterranean / Sea of Marmara breached through to the Black Sea, which at the time ( according to the theory ) was a low-lying body of fresh water.

It will be part of the " Northern Marmara Motorway ", which will be further integrated with the existing Black Sea Coastal Highway.

The currents produced by the tidal action in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara are such that ships under sail must await at anchorage for the right conditions before entering the Dardanelles.

He then sent a column under Konur Alp towards West Black Sea coast ; another column under Aqueda to capture Kocaeli, and finally a column to capture the southeast coast of the Sea of Marmara.

True lowland is confined to the Ergene Plain in Thrace, extending along rivers that discharge into the Aegean Sea or the Sea of Marmara, and to a few narrow coastal strips along the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea coasts.

The periphery is divided into the Black Sea region, the Marmara region, the Aegean region, and the Mediterranean region.

The Bosphorus, which links the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, is about twenty-five kilometers long and averages 1. 5 kilometers in width but narrows in places to less than 1000 meters.

As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east.

Shipping regions are Caspian, Black, Mediterranean and Marmara Seas.

As early as 258 AD, the Gothic-Herulic fleet ravaged towns on the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara.

* Bosporus and the Dardanelles, which connect the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea, with the Sea of Marmara in between.

* The Mediterranean Sea ( or the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea ): including the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Aegean Sea, the Adriatic Sea, the Ligurian Sea, the Balearic Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Ionian Sea, and the Sea of Marmara.

To the east, the Aegean coast of Asia Minor was colonized first, followed by Cyprus and the coasts of Thrace, the Sea of Marmara and south coast of the Black Sea.