- The Mediterranean Sea (/ˌmɛdɪtəˈreɪniən/ MED-ih-tə-RAY-nee-ən) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant in West Asia. The Mediterranean has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.
- Asellus Borealis (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
ASELLUS BOREALIS (Gamma Cancri). The lore of the sky is not monolithic, but cuts amazingly across time and cultures. There is no single set of stories, as witness Cancer, the Crab, one of the dimmer figures of the Zodiac that is sandwiched between Gemini and Leo.