The Arabian Sea's surface area is about. The maximum width of the sea is approximately, and its maximum depth is. The biggest river flowing into the sea is the Indus River. The Arabian Sea has two important branches — the Gulf of Aden in the southwest, connecting with the Red Sea through the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb; and the Gulf of Oman to the northwest, connecting with the Persian Gulf. There are also the gulfs of Khambhat and Kutch on the Indian Coast. The countries with coastlines on the Arabian Sea are Yemen, Oman, Pakistan, Iran, India and the Maldives.
On the west: the eastern limit of the Gulf of Aden.
On the north: a line joining Ràs al Hadd, east point of the Arabian Peninsula and Ràs Jiyùni on the coast of Pakistan.
On the south: a line running from the southern extremity of Addu Atoll in the Maldives, to the eastern extremity of Ràs Hafun.
On the east: the western limit of the Laccadive Sea a line running from Sadashivgad on the west coast of India to Cora Divh and thence down the west side of the Laccadive and Maldive archipelagos to the most southerly point of Addu Atoll in the Maldives.
Alternative names
The Arabian sea was called Erythraean Sea during the times of the Roman empire. The Arabian Sea historically and geographically has been referred to with many different names by Arabian and European geographers and travelers, including Sindhu Sagar, Arabbi Samudra, and the Erythraean Sea, there are many official maps showing the different names of the sea.
Trade routes
The Arabian Sea has been an important marine trade route since the era of the coastal sailing vessels from possibly as early as the 3rd millennium BCE, certainly the late 2nd millennium BCE through the later days known as the Age of Sail. By the time of Julius Caesar, several well-established combined land-sea trade routes depended upon water transport through the sea around the rough inland terrain features to its north. These routes usually began in the Far East or down river from Madhya Pradesh, India with transshipment via historic Bharuch, traversed past the inhospitable coast of modern day Iran, then split around Hadhramaut, Yemen into two streams north into the Gulf of Aden and thence into the Levant, or south into Alexandria via Red Sea ports such as Axum. Each major route involved transhipping to pack animal caravan, travel through desert country and risk of bandits and extortionate tolls by local potentates. This southern coastal route past the rough country in the southern Arabian Peninsula was significant, and the Egyptian Pharaohs built several shallow canals to service the trade, one more or less along the route of today's Suez canal, and another from the Red Sea to the Nile River, both shallow works that were swallowed up by huge sand storms in antiquity. Later the kingdom of Axum arose in Ethiopia to rule a mercantile empire rooted in the trade with Europe via Alexandria.
Major ports
The Port of Karachi, Pakistan's largest and busiest seaport lies on the coast of the sea. It is located between the Karachi towns of Kiamari and Saddar. The Gwadar Port of Pakistan is a warm-water, deep-sea port situated at Gwadar in Balochistan at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, about 460 km west of Karachi and approximately 75 km east of Pakistan's border with Iran. The port is located on the eastern bay of a natural hammerhead-shaped peninsula jutting out into the Arabian Sea from the coastline. Port of Salalah in Salalah, Oman is also a major port in the area. The International Task Force often uses the port as a base. There is a significant number of warships of all nations coming in and out of the port, which makes it a very safe bubble. The port handled just under 3.5m teu in 2009. Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai is the largest port in the Arabian Sea, and the largest container port in India. Major Indian ports in the Arabian Sea are Mundra Port, Kandla Port, Nava Sheva, Kochi Port, Mumbai Port, and Mormugão.
Islands
There are several islands in the Arabian Sea, with the most important ones being Lakshadweep Islands, Socotra, Masirah and Astola Island. The Lakshadweep Islands is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea region of Arabian Sea, 200 to 440 km off the southwestern coast of India. The archipelago is a union territory and is governed by the Union Government of India. The islands form the smallest union territory of India with their total surface area being just. The islands are the northernmost of the Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos group of islands. Astola Island, also known as Jezira Haft Talar in Balochi, or 'Island of the Seven Hills', is a small, uninhabited island in the northern tip of the Arabian Sea in Pakistan's territorial waters. Socotra, also spelled Soqotra, is the largest island, being part of a small archipelago of four islands. It lies some east of the Horn of Africa and south of the Arabian Peninsula. Masirah is an island off the east coast of Oman.
Dead zone
The dead zone is an area in the Gulf of Oman that is completely depleted of oxygen, as a result of which it does not support marine life. It is the world's largest-known dead zone with an area larger than that of Scotland.
