Actium ( Greek: Ἄκτιον ) was the ancient name of a promontory of western Greece in northwestern Acarnania, at the mouth of the Sinus Ambracius ( Gulf of Arta ) opposite Nicopolis, built by Augustus on the north side of the strait.

The strategic significance of the strait was one of the factors in the decision of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to found there in AD 330 his new capital, Constantinople, which came to be known as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

An under sea water supply tunnel with a length of, named the Bosphorus Water Tunnel, was constructed in 2012 to transfer water from the Melen Creek in Düzce Province ( to the east of the Bosphorus strait, in northwestern Anatolia ) to the European side of Istanbul, from a distance of.

But finding the sea guarded by a squadron of Octavian's ships, he retired to winter at Patrae while his fleet for the most part lay in the Ambracian Gulf, and his land forces encamped near the promontory of Actium, while the opposite side of the narrow strait into the Ambracian Gulf was also protected by a tower and a body of troops.

It was not until the latter part of August that troops were brought by land into the neighbourhood of Antony's camp on the north side of the strait.

But during these months not only was Agrippa continuing his descent upon Greek towns and coasts, but in various cavalry skirmishes, Octavian had so far prevailed that Antony abandoned the north side of the strait and confined his soldiers to the southern camp.

On the other side of the strait was Scylla, another sea-monster.

Later, stranded on a makeshift raft, Odysseus was swept back through the strait to face Scylla and Charybdis again.

The Greek name ( Hellespontos ) means “ Sea of Helle ”, and was the ancient name of the narrow strait.

The ancient city of Troy was located near the western entrance of the strait and the strait's Asiatic shore was the focus of the Trojan War.

The " deception " was heightened due to Whidbey's failure to find the strait at first.

Unlike their father, Hesiod was averse to sea travel but he once crossed the narrow strait between the Greek mainland and Euboea to participate in funeral celebrations for one Athamas of Chalcis, where he won a tripod in a singing competition.

His first objective was Malacca, which controlled the narrow strait through which most Far Eastern trade moved.

Section 112 ), describes the Pharos and how it was a key landmark to his subduing Ptolemy XIV's armies ( 48 BC ), describing its strategic importance in his sentences " Now because of the narrowness of the strait there can be no access by ship to the harbour without the consent of those who hold the Pharos.

But on 5 August 1936 the so-called Convoy de la victoria was able to bring at least 2, 500 men across the strait breaking the republican blockade.

In those days it was easier and quicker to cross the strait towards nearby Kolka, Saunags or Mazirbe, than travel by horse large distances inland.

Geologically, the lake was formed after the last ice age about 10, 000 years ago ; when the ice melted, the entire width of Sweden was covered in water, creating a strait between Kattegat and the Gulf of Bothnia.

* November 28 – After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific ( the strait was later named the Strait of Magellan ).

It shows a waterfall because the old name of the town ( Fosen ) was misinterpreted as Fossund ( as a compound of foss which means waterfall and sund which means strait ).

This supposed “ strait ” was in fact the Rio de la Plata.

Barkley was the first non-indigenous person to find the strait, unless Juan de Fuca's dubious story was true.

The people were mentioned as Helsinger ( which may mean " the people of the strait ") for the first time in King Valdemar the Victorious's Liber Census Daniæ from 1231, but they should not be confused with the Helsings of Hälsingland in Sweden.

* 1520 – After navigating through a strait at the southern end of South America, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

The first human settlements in Gallura date back to 700. 000 years ago, when the first populations crossed the strait between Tuscany and Sardinia.

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes's first attempt to bridge the Hellespont ended in failure when a storm destroyed the flax and papyrus cables of the bridges ; Xerxes ordered the Hellespont ( the strait itself ) whipped three hundred times and had fetters thrown into the water.

Sailing further north, Bering entered for the first time the strait that would later bear his name.

Assessing the scale of Bering's achievements is difficult, given that he was neither the first Russian to sight North America ( that having been completed by Gvozdev during the 1730s ), nor the first Russian to pass through the strait which now bears his name ( an honour which goes to the relatively unknown 17th century expedition of Semyon Dezhnev ).

Three weeks later the French explorer Nicolas Baudin sailed through the strait from east to west and was the first to properly survey the coast to the west.

The strait is named after James Cook, the first European commander to sail through it, in 1770.

In modern times, the strait was first swum by Barrie Devenport, in 1962.

* 1975: Lynne Cox is the first woman to swim the strait.

The first recorded observation of the strait occurred nearly two hundred years later than the earliest European explorations of the coast ; in 1769 Sgt.

On August 5, 1775 Juan de Ayala and the crew of his ship the San Carlos became the first Europeans known to have passed through the strait, anchoring in a cove behind Angel Island which is now named in Ayala's honor.

The first element is hvalr which means " whale " and the last element is sund which means " strait " or " sound ".

The first element is the genitive case of the name of the island Eikund ( now Eigerøya ) and the last element is sund which means " strait " or " sound ".

The Karmsund strait was also the source of the name of the kingdom, at the time when the first king of the unified Norway, Harald Fairhair, lived on Karmøy.

The first element is far n ' travel, journey ' ( like in English farewell ' good journey '), the last element is sund n ' strait, sound '.

The first element of the name Miðja means " middle " and the second element sund means " strait " or " sound ".

The first element is the ( uncompounded ) Old Norse name of Tjeldøya ( Tjöld or Tjalda ) and the last element is sund which means " strait " or " sound ".

Most of the statements from Taiwan were carefully worded to prevent escalation of already tense cross strait relations.

The strait was explored in detail between 1789 and 1791 by Manuel Quimper, José María Narváez, Juan Carrasco, Gonzalo López de Haro, and Francisco de Eliza.

The strait is named after Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, who explored the channel in 1787.

On Russian maps, the short narrowest section of the strait ( south of the mouth of the Amur ) is called Nevelskoy Strait, after Admiral Gennady Nevelskoy, who explored the area in 1848 ; the body of water north of there, into which the Amur River flows, is the Amur Liman ; and the name of " Strait of Tartary " is reserved for the largest section of the body of water, south of Nevelskoy Strait.

The strait is not recorded in the voyages of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo nor Francis Drake, both of whom may have explored the nearby coast in the 16th century in search of the fabled Northwest Passage.

Jacinto Caamaño, who had explored the region a year before Vancouver, named the strait Entrada de Nuestra Senora del Carmen.

There are many cliffs that can get up to tall and shoot strait into the ocean as well as sea-level caves that can be explored on a calm day by thrill-seeking individuals in small craft.

The Belgian Antarctic Expedition, under Lt. Adrien de Gerlache, explored the strait in January and February 1898, naming it for the expedition ship Belgica.