Building Descriptions - some of our more unique ones

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Just wanted to say thanks again paullus - I'm rearranging unique buildings and plugging the description you wrote in now.

(slightly revised):

Bab el Mandeb
Bab el Mandeb

This strait forms the boundary between the Arabikos Kolpos (or the Red Sea) and the main area of the Erythra Thalassa (most of which we now know as the Indian Ocean). It was known by the Hellenes as Deire, the Neck, since on either side of the strait Africa and Arabia come close to one another, and the strait is squeezed between them for several kilometers, creating the appearance of a neck. The Hellenes probably appropriated the name from merchants of the Erythra Thalassa. Herodotos claimed that the straits were crossed by the Egyptian conqueror Sesostris, though modern authorities doubt the Egyptians ever controlled the straits, and debate whether Sesostris existed at all. Most of the traffic around the straits was passing through by sea, rather than moving from Africa to Arabia. Merchant vessels traveling the routes from India to Berenike had to pass through Deire, which developed a reputation for having turbulent waters. However, there were several important trading centers just outside of the straits, and some of these, such as Muza in Arabia, became halfway depots: merchants could travel to these places and back home again, rather than making the entire journey. The nearby port of Adulis, on the African side, was a key site for the ivory trade. The straits, and the mountains running south and west from them in Africa, formed a sort of frontier between Aethiopia and the Far Side of Africa.

If anyone would like to do one for the straits of Hormuz, please let me know.