The Red Sea is an Indian Ocean seawater inlet located between Africa and Asia. It has a southern access to the ocean via the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. The Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez lay to its north. It has an average depth of 490 m and a maximum depth of 3,040 m in the central Suakin Trough. The Red Sea contains wide shallow shelves that are known for their marine life and corals. Over 1,000 invertebrate species and 200 different types of soft and hard coral live in the sea. It has been named a Global 200 ecoregion and is the northernmost tropical sea in the world.
