Red Sea

[castiron]

Hello, I think i know why the Red Sea, is called the Red Sea, but i`m not sure, any ideas?
castiron

[kempie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea#Name

[castiron]

Hello Kempie, Thanks for your very comprehensive answer, but i understood, that while sailing through the Red Sea during my army days, we were told it was due to the beautiful red sunsets which occur almost every day.
castiron

[kempie]

The six suggestions given in the article for the reason behind the name are by no means definitive. You have just increased that number to seven.

[Quizmonster]

And here's an eighth...
Early Egyptian sailors - long before the Suez Canal was dug, obviously - referred to the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba as the �end' seas. It's possible that changed over time to �red', because the Bible itself refers to both �yam soph' = end sea and yam suph = red sea.

[spudqueen]

Did you know that from space the red sea looks red and the black sea looks black? Makes you wonder who first named them.

[Octavius]

Unless a place was named after someone in particular, most places historically got their names derived from ancient descriptions of that place. The Hebrew description of a �Reed Sea� could possibly be the most plausible origin of the modern name, but it is unlikely that a mere slip of the tongue could change the name of the sea forever is it? The Hebrew name for the Dead Sea was Yam ha-Melakh - meaning "sea of salt", or sometimes Yam ha-Mavet - meaning "sea of death". Whilst both were correct, modernists preferred the term Dead Sea as no species could ever live in it (supposedly at least although some algae has been known to flourish) and besides, the term �Salt Lake� had already been pinched by the Americans! The Greeks knew the Dead Sea as "Lake Asphaltites", due to the naturally surfacing asphalt, funny that name never stuck. I strongly suspect that the Hebrew name for the Reed Sea referred specifically to the point the Israelites crossed in the Exodus (Gulf of Suez), whereas the origin of the name Red Sea is open to great speculation. Another example is the Sea of Galilee which is in�.Galilee. The biblical Hebrew name for it was Yam Kinneret "Sea of Kinnereth", some believe Kinnereth stems from the kinnor, a type of ancient stringed instrument such as a harp or lyre, because of its shape. I particularly like the idea of the Harei Edom (Sea) being linguistically passed down through the generations finally ending up in the English language as Red Sea. Presumably the Red Sea had many names before and after what we now know it to be called unfortunately one thing we cannot be entirely sure of is why.