The biography of the Red Sea

I never thought - why the Red Sea was called red. Well, red and red, why not? I didn’t think exactly until I went out onto the roof of our house once in the evening, well, I accidentally went out-to look at the big wind, and, casting a glance at the sea-I literally fell into strong confusion: instead of the usual blue or gray-blue sea open spaciousness, I suddenly saw pinkish and bright red sea surface that I did not believe it in the literal sense of the word.

His eyes. But the very next moment, grabbing the camera, fled to the shore. To begin with - that’s what I saw on the shore: the background of all this: at that time I lived in Dahab a good three months, and I have never seen such an amazing sea. The picture, I must say, is not very simple - the sea of ​​all shades of red and pink colors. I remember at that moment on the sand along the edge of the surf literally people stood in a row and stared at what was happening.

I had no time to stare at all, I perfectly understood that the shooting time I had 10 minutes and even specially walk along the shore in search of different boats, and therefore-I took off and at all these 10 minutes. Yes, the landscapes, continuously replacing before us, were more than impressive, the palette changed continuously - this picture literally a few minutes after the first, the upper one: and now I’ll tell you what exactly came from, where such paints came from - a sharp change in the weather came, a storm with a cyclone and abnormal cooling.

Literally later, the air temperature drops to 10s after at night, but that night a strong wind will hit at one point right after the red sunset, up to 20 meters per second and a thunderstorm will break out, which will flood all our roofs, turn it so goodly, turning them into mini -basses, electricity in Dahab will turn off the town, will get stood up. But all these are trifles compared to what he saw.

Rare weather was that evening: clouds of different densities were completely closed over the sea, and the sun sat over the mountains with a bright red disk. There is also a lot of incomprehensible, I remember the saying from childhood: "The sun is red since the evening - there is nothing to fear a sailor." It turns out in Dahab this does not work at all? So, the sun settled in a red disk and rays, reflected from the clouds - beautiful reflected light, painted not only low clouds, but also the surface of the sea in all shades of red.

It was still very lucky that there was practically calm in front of the thunderstorm - there was a smooth surface, which easily and pleasantly absorbed the colors of the sky to the pleasure and surprise of everyone around. I took off almost one place, the boats moved slightly on the waves, but in the sky there was an incredible action: there is another interesting moment: the sea was red towards the southeast - this is just opposite the rolling sun.

And if you turn more in the north direction, to the north-wrapped along the coast, then there the color scheme has already changed, but in the even more amazing direction: when I was examined at home in the evening, at some point I thought- maybe it was precisely because of such enchanting sunsets and called red? It really amazes the imagination - water, the sea open spaces of red.

I went to google that evening and this is what I found about the name Red Sea - there are several options, I will just list them: 1. The sailors, who had come to swim in the waters of this sea, were simply discouraged by the blue color of the waters, which sharply was replaced by bright red, under the influence of numerous algae. Yes, there is a version that flowering algae betray the sea a red tint.

But that evening the algae definitely did not bloom, early yet. Perhaps the sailors, POPV for a sharp difference in the weather, followed by a storm, were very remembered and impressed with red. The sea, as it were, warns of an impending storm, storm. I have seen enough of all these beauties, I really like the version. This version explains the origin of the name of the Red Sea from the incorrect reading of the Semitic word consisting of three letters: “x”, “m” and “p”.

From these letters in ancient inscriptions, the name of the Semitic people - Khimyarita, who lived in South Arabia before its conquest by the Arabs, was compiled. In ancient South Aravian writing, brief vowels were not graphically depicted in a letter. Another version makes the name of the sea dependent on a particular part of the world.

In the mythical legends of many peoples of the world, the parties are associated with certain color shades. For example, the red color symbolizes the south, white - the east, black in a number of Asian peoples - north. Hence the name "Black Sea" does not mean "sea with dark, black water", but "the sea located in the north." After all, the Turks called this sea of ​​kara-denise, the ancient tribes that spoke Iranian languages, Akhshena Dark, and the Scythians called Tama, which is also associated with the meaning of "dark".

As for the Red Sea, the word “red” apparently indicates its southern location, and not at all the color of sea water.About algae: according to another version, the sea was called this due to the seasonal flowering of microscopic algae Trichodesmium Erythraeum near the surface of the water. The excess of the red pigment of the phicoeritrin in algae causes the “flowering” of water in the Red Sea, and the latter instead of blue-green becomes reddish-brown.

But flowering was not instantaneous, and it lasted a long time. There is also a version with very religious roots: during the withdrawal of Jews from Egypt, their path passed through the waters of the Erytrey Sea. When the travelers, who were on the way for several days, reached its shore, Moses turned to Jesus Christ, with a request to remove the waters of the sea for a while.

The waters of the sea really parted in different directions, opening a small path in front of the travelers. And when all the people went to the other side, he immediately returned to the channels. Behind the Jews there was a pursuit. About twenty thousand Egyptian soldiers, on chariots, tried to catch up with the escaped. It was these warriors that fell under the hard blow of the waves of the sea, returning to their usual state.

All, to the one, the soldiers died, and the sea acquired a crimson color from their blood. It was from here, according to the Bible, that the name of the Red Sea originated. Confirmations of this version are also available. At the bottom of the sea, the bones of soldiers and horses, parts of chariots, swords, shields are still found, on which algae and corals gathered with a huge layer.

The geological version of the origin of the name of the Red Sea: the Red Sea is the warmest throughout the Earth. The local climate, of course, is guilty of this, but its warmth also contributes to the warmth of the nucleus of our planet. At the bottom of the sea is a huge number of hot springs, beating directly from the ground, the temperature of some of them exceeds 70 degrees along the Celsius scale.

The bottom of the Red Sea is separated from the lava only with a thin layer of the earth's mantle. This sea is called precisely red, because there is a myriad of pinkish rocks, which, under the influence of sunlight, acquire a variety of shades of red color. That evening, when I shot these personnel, the rays of the sun were definitely reflected from the surface of the sea, but not from the rocks.

There is also a version that the sea was called red due to the large number of red corals, which go to the very surface of the water. In general, there are a lot of versions, what to choose from. And I have not yet deepened into the subject at that time, but the origin of the name of the sea was very interested in. Also because the final frame that evening was this one - bright, bright red - like the name of the sea:.