The sea between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula is the Red Sea. It lies between northeastern Africa and western Asia and connects southward to the Indian Ocean through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden.
Its western shores include Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti; its eastern shores include Saudi Arabia and Yemen. At the north, the Red Sea divides into the Gulf of Suez and Gulf of Aqaba, with the Suez Canal linking the Gulf of Suez to the Mediterranean Sea.
The Red Sea occupies an active geological rift where the African and Arabian plates are moving apart. That process split the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa and continues to widen the basin. High evaporation and very little rainfall make the Red Sea unusually warm and salty, while its coral reefs support diverse marine life.
A frequent mix-up is the Gulf of Aden, which lies farther southeast between Yemen and the Horn of Africa. The Gulf of Aden connects the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea but is not the Red Sea itself.