Why is the Red Sea so called?
Question asked by: knowitall
This is an interesting question as the Red Sea has not always been so called.
The Israelites simply called it 'the sea' and to others it was called the Arabian Gulf.
The sea itself is not red which is why people have speculated over the name. One option is that the name comes from a mis-translation of Reed Sea to describe it in the Bible.
Another possibility is that it refers to some red looking mountains nearby, or even is a reference to some seasonal bacteria blooms that come near the surface and may briefly give it the colour red. The final common theory is that red refers to the direction south.
Really though your guess is as good as mine!
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called sea red
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