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Glite Dictionary
Gulf of Aqaba

Gulf of Aqaba

1 3.9
A narrow part of the Red Sea between Egypt and Saudi Arabia
  • proper noun
translation icon : Golfo de Aqaba
  • Many ships pass through the Gulf of Aqaba while traveling between Europe and Asia.

Examples

  • Tourists often visit the beautiful coral reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba.

  • Once it became clear that the United States would support this resolution, Israel gave in, albeit not before receiving repeated assurances from the United States regarding its support of free navigation through the Gulf of Aqaba.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The Gulf of Aqaba is a popular spot for divers due to its rich marine life.

Synonyms

Gulf of Akaba
vsGulf of Aqaba
5.3

A long narrow bay of the Red Sea between Egypt and Saudi Arabia

is the other spelling that names the identical northeastern Red Sea feature

Surface Forms

Gulf of Aqaba main

Morphology

gulf + of + Aqaba

This is a fully compositional place-name: 'gulf' (an extensive stretch of sea) combined with the genitive/locative 'of' plus the place-name 'Aqaba' yields the meaning 'the gulf associated with Aqaba'. The X of Y toponymic pattern is cross-linguistically common and therefore immediately derivable by a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.

Etymology

Gulf of Aqaba is named after the town of Aqaba at the north end of the water. One popular story says Aqaba means 'steep pass' or 'difficult climb', so you can picture a narrow sea beside high, rocky land, and that image helps you remember it is the sea between the Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia.