Black Sea countries
The six countries around the Black Sea, an almost enclosed sea between Europe and Asia whose only way out is through Istanbul.
6 countriesAs of September 2026Short notes, not sourcedSuggest a correction
The Black Sea covers about 436,000 km² between south-eastern Europe and Anatolia. Its only link to the oceans is the Bosporus, the narrow strait through the middle of Istanbul, which leads on to the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles and the Mediterranean. The Danube, the Dnieper and the Don all drain into it, so its surface water is only about half as salty as the ocean.
Below about 150 to 200 m the water hardly mixes with the layer above and has almost no oxygen, only hydrogen sulphide. Almost nothing lives down there, and wooden shipwrecks thousands of years old have been found intact on the bottom. The Montreux Convention of 1936 lets Turkey control which warships pass through its straits.
The six coasts6
Clockwise round the sea, starting from the Bosporus.
TürkiyeHas the longest Black Sea coast, along northern Anatolia, and controls the Bosporus.
BulgariaIts coast has the resorts and ports of Varna and Burgas.
RomaniaMost of the Danube Delta is here, and its main port is Constanța.
UkraineOdesa is its biggest port. Russia has held Crimea since 2014, and Ukraine’s whole coast on the Sea of Azov since 2022.
RussiaHolds the coast from the Sea of Azov to Sochi, as well as Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and which most of the world still counts as Ukraine’s.
GeorgiaIts ports are Batumi and Poti. Abkhazia, a breakaway region backed by Russia, has most of the coast north of them.
Close calls
Moldova
Moldova’s bank on the Danube, a few hundred metres long at Giurgiulești, lets ships reach it from the Black Sea, but it has no coast of its own.
The Sea of Azov
The shallow Sea of Azov, north of the Kerch Strait, is joined to the Black Sea and counted with it here. It is only about 14 m deep at its deepest.
Not the Mediterranean
The Black Sea connects to the Mediterranean, but it is usually counted as a sea of its own, and the Grid has a separate clue for it.
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