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Straits & Canals
19 entries
The Bab-el-Mandeb
The Gate of Grief between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, southern door of the Red Sea and the Suez route
The Bering Strait
The 82-kilometer gap between Russia and Alaska, where Asia meets America and today faces tomorrow
The Bosphorus
The strait that splits Istanbul between Europe and Asia and is the Black Sea's only door to the oceans
The Corinth Canal
The narrow, sheer-walled cut across the Isthmus of Corinth that links the Ionian and Aegean sides of Greece
The Danish Straits
The three channels through the Danish islands that are the Baltic Sea's only sea routes to the North Sea and the Atlantic
The Dardanelles
The narrow Turkish strait between Europe and Asia that links the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean and the Mediterranean
The Drake Passage
The wild 800-kilometer gap between Cape Horn and Antarctica, the roughest crossing on Earth
The English Channel
La Manche to the French — the narrow sea between Britain and France and the world's busiest shipping lane
The Kiel Canal
Germany's shortcut across the base of the Jutland Peninsula, linking the North Sea to the Baltic
The Lombok Strait
The deep Indonesian channel between Bali and Lombok that takes supertankers too deep-laden for the Strait of Malacca
The Mozambique Channel
The broad arm of the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar on the shipping lanes around the Cape of Good Hope
The Panama Canal
The rain-fed staircase of locks that lifts ships across the Isthmus of Panama between the Atlantic and the Pacific
The Strait of Gibraltar
The 14-kilometer gap between Europe and Africa that is the Mediterranean's only natural link to the Atlantic
The Strait of Hormuz
The narrow outlet of the Persian Gulf, through which about a fifth of the world's oil passed in 2025
The Strait of Magellan
The winding channel through Chilean Patagonia that links the Atlantic and the Pacific north of Tierra del Fuego
The Strait of Malacca
The long channel between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, the world's busiest oil chokepoint
The Suez Canal
Egypt's sea-level shortcut between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, still recovering from the Red Sea crisis
The Sunda Strait
The volcanic strait between Java and Sumatra, home of Krakatoa and one of Indonesia's busiest ferry crossings
The Taiwan Strait
The busy, closely watched channel between mainland China and Taiwan