Mediterranean Sea addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri and Dhekelia have coastlines on the sea. The Ancient Greeks called the Mediterranean simply 'the Sea' or sometimes 'the Great Sea', 'Our Sea', or 'the sea around us'. The Romans called it "Mare Magnum" 'Great Sea' or "Mare Internum" 'Internal Sea' and, starting with the Roman Empire, "Mare Nostrum" 'Our Sea'. The term "Mare Mediterrāneum" appears later: Solinus apparently used it in the 3rd century, but the earliest extant witness to it is in the 6th century, in Isidore of Seville. It means 'in the middle of
What the Rose did to the Cypress and drank. A faqir asked him what he did there. He told him his story and asked the faqir's, repeating when the faqir put him off, until the faqir told him he had been a king, and his seven sons had all tried to win a princess whose hand could only be won by answering the riddle, "What did the rose do to the cypress?" and died for their failure. His grief sent him into the desert. This inspired the son with a love for the same princess. His attendants found him and brought him back, but he grew ill