Mare Nostrum

Mare Nostrum (Latin: “Our Sea”) was a Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant.

Although the sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually referred to as a separate body of water. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.

Coastal countries

For a more comprehensive list, see List of Mediterranean countries.

Map of the Mediterranean Sea from open Natural Earth data, 2020
The following countries have a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea:

Northern shore (from west to east): Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey.
Eastern shore (from north to south): Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt.
Southern shore (from west to east): Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt.
Island nations: Malta, Cyprus.

Exclusive economic zones in Mediterranean Sea: