Mediterranean countries
The 22 countries with a shore on the Mediterranean Sea, on three continents: eleven in southern Europe, six around its eastern end, and five along the coast of North Africa.
22 countriesAs of September 2026Short notes, not sourcedSuggest a correction
The Mediterranean covers about 2.5 million square kilometres between Europe, Africa and Asia. It joins the Atlantic only through the Strait of Gibraltar, about 14 km wide at its narrowest, and the Red Sea through the Suez Canal, opened in 1869. It has smaller seas of its own, among them the Adriatic, the Aegean, the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian.
About six million years ago the strait closed and the sea almost dried out, leaving thick layers of salt on its floor. When the Atlantic broke back through, geologists think it refilled in as little as a few years. Today it loses more water to evaporation than its rivers bring in, so a current flows in from the Atlantic at the surface and saltier water flows out along the bottom.
Europe11
From Gibraltar round to the Aegean.
SpainIts Mediterranean coast runs from Gibraltar to the French border, and includes the Balearic Islands.
FranceThe Riviera, from Marseille to Menton, and the island of Corsica.
MonacoIts coast is only about 4 km long, and the whole Fontvieille district is built on land reclaimed from the sea.
ItalyA peninsula with Sicily and Sardinia, the two largest islands in the Mediterranean.
MaltaAn island country in the middle of the sea, about 90 km south of Sicily.
SloveniaIts coast on the Adriatic is only about 47 km long, around the port of Koper.
CroatiaHas more than a thousand islands along its Adriatic coast. The Pelješac Bridge, opened in 2022, joins its southern tip to the rest of the country without crossing Bosnia.
Bosnia and HerzegovinaIts shore at Neum, about 20 km long, is the shortest on the Mediterranean apart from Monaco’s, and it splits the Croatian coast in two.
MontenegroMontenegro’s coast includes the Bay of Kotor, a winding inlet between steep mountains.
AlbaniaIts coast faces the Adriatic in the north and the Ionian Sea in the south.
GreeceHas the longest Mediterranean coastline, counting its thousands of islands.
The eastern end6
The Levant, with Turkey and Cyprus.
TürkiyeIts southern coast faces Cyprus, and its western coast the Aegean. It also has a Black Sea coast, joined to the Mediterranean through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.
CyprusThe third-largest island in the Mediterranean, after Sicily and Sardinia.
SyriaHas a short coast, about 190 km long, around Latakia.
LebanonBeirut, Tyre and Sidon were cities of the Phoenicians, who sailed and traded across the Mediterranean from about 1000 BC.
IsraelNearly all its people live on or near its Mediterranean coast, around Tel Aviv and Haifa.
PalestineIts coast is the Gaza Strip, about 40 km long.
North Africa5
From the Nile Delta to the Strait of Gibraltar.
EgyptAlexandria, founded by Alexander the Great, sits on its coast, and the Suez Canal links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
LibyaHas the longest Mediterranean coast in Africa, about 1,770 km.
TunisiaCarthage, near Tunis, was the great rival of Rome, which destroyed it in 146 BC.
MoroccoIts northern coast faces Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar, and Spain’s cities of Ceuta and Melilla sit on it.
Close calls
Portugal
Portugal is often thought of as Mediterranean for its climate and food, but its whole coast is on the Atlantic.
Jordan
Jordan’s only coast is a short stretch on the Gulf of Aqaba, part of the Red Sea. The Dead Sea, on its border, is a lake with no outlet.
The Black Sea countries
The Black Sea connects to the Mediterranean through Turkey’s straits, but it isn’t counted as part of it, so Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia aren’t on the list.
Gibraltar and the British bases
Gibraltar and the Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus are British, and the United Kingdom has a Mediterranean shore through them, but they’re territories rather than part of the country, so the UK isn’t counted.
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- Arab League member states
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