- The Baltic Sea is an almost enclosed Sea which connects through a narrow seaway called the Skagerrak into the North Sea and so into the Atlantic.
- Tacitus called the Baltic the ‘Mare Suebicum’ named after the Suebi Tribe in his ‘Agricola’ and ‘Germania’.
Baltic Rim Countries
- The Sea is surrounded by the following countries in clockwise order:
- Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad (Russia), Poland, Germany, Denmark.
Bays and Gulfs
- It has four Gulfs and many Bays: the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Gdansk.
Islands and Archipelagos
- Aland Archipelago (6,500 islands), Blekinge Archipelago, Bornholm, Falster, Gotland, Hailuoto, Kotlin, Lolland, Kvarken Archipelago, Mon, Oland, Rugen, Stockholm Archipelago, Varmdon, Usedom, West Estonian Archipelago, Hiiumaa, Muhu, Saaremaa, Vormsi, Wolin and Zealand.
Skagerrak and Danish Straits
- The Skagerrak is a Strait that connects the North Sea with the Kattegat Sea.
- It passes between southeastern Norway, western Sweden and the Jutland Peninsular of Denmark.
- It then connects with the Baltic through the Danish Straits.
Curonian Spit
- The Curonian Spit forms a barrier which separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea.
- It stretches 62 miles (100 km) from Lithuania to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave, and is a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Vistula Spit
- The Vistula Spit is a narrow sandbank that separates the Vistula Lagoon from the Gdansk Bay of the Baltic. The highest Sand dunes reach 82 feet (25m) in height.
Amber
- Pytheas
- Pytheus stated that Amber was mainly found on the Baltic Sea coasts.
- In his Work ‘On the Ocean’ (now lost) Pytheas wrote about Amber.
- Pliny the Elder
- He quoted the passage from Pytheas in his Natural History, in which Pytheas claimed that the Gutones found Amber on the beaches of the Isle of Abalus, in the Mentonomon Sea (Baltic), which they collected and then sold to the Teutones.
Amber Road
- Amber travelled along the Amber Road from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and the Black Sea.
Baltic Sea