The Arabian Sea is a marginal sea of the northern Indian Ocean, bounded by the Arabian Peninsula to the west, Pakistan to the north, India to the east, and Somalia to the southwest.
Covering 3,862,000 square kilometres and reaching depths of 5,395 metres, the sea connects to the Red Sea via the Gulf of Aden and to the Persian Gulf through the Gulf of Oman. Its waters are shaped by monsoon winds that governed maritime trade routes for millennia, blowing northeastwards from late summer to autumn and bringing heavy rains to the Indian subcontinent while leaving the Horn of Africa and Arabian Peninsula dry. The seabed is dominated by the Arabian Basin and contains the Indus Fan, the world’s second largest depositional fan system. Major ports today include Karachi and Gwadar in Pakistan, Chabahar in Iran, and Salalah in Oman. The largest islands are Socotra (Yemen), Masirah (Oman), and Astola (Pakistan). Six countries hold coastlines on the Arabian Sea: Yemen, Oman, Pakistan, Iran, India, and the Maldives.
