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Adriatic Sea
The long Mediterranean arm between Italy and the Balkans
The Adriatic is the slender northern reach of the Mediterranean, a 800-kilometre corridor of blue water dividing the Italian peninsula from the Balkan coast. On one side lie Venice and the flat lagoons of the Po — on the other, the dazzling karst islands and walled cities of Croatia and Montenegro. For centuries it was a Venetian lake, and its trade, its art, and its endless littoral towns make it one of the most culturally saturated stretches of sea anywhere on the planet.
Covering about 138,600 square kilometres, the Adriatic is shallow and gently shelving in its broad northern half — where the Po and other Alpine rivers wash in sediment — and deepens toward the south, reaching about 1,233 metres in the South Adriatic Pit before opening through the Strait of Otranto into the Ionian Sea. Its eastern shore is a drowned karst coastline of more than a thousand limestone islands, while the smoother Italian coast is lined with lagoons and beaches. A cold winter wind, the bora, sweeps down off the Dinaric mountains.
The Adriatic was the maritime heart of the Republic of Venice, whose galleys controlled its trade for a thousand years and whose doge symbolically wed the sea each year. Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, and Austro-Hungarian power all left their mark along its shores, from Diocletian's palace at Split to the ramparts of Dubrovnik. Today its clear waters and historic coastline draw millions of visitors to Italy, Croatia, and beyond, while six nations share its fisheries and its increasingly crowded summer seas.