Talk:Bab-el-Mandeb

Untitled
Should not all magnitudes be expressed in the International System of Units? (Brunotaut (talk) 02:29, 18 July 2012 (UTC))

According to what I've seen in the Web, the depth of Bab el Mandeb is about 170m and not fathoms. Can somebody verify the correct depth? Thanks --Noon 17:34, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC) can I add a picture from a geotextbook Uchenna K 3-3-06


 * Article could use a helpful map. Bastie 21:50, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

"Gate of tears" derived from slave transports
Wasn't the name "Gate of Tears" given to that strait due to the fact, that Arab slave traders used to carry their "cargo" across it on ship in doing so many slaves died or drowned?
 * A quick google search seems to indicate the term comes from the large number of shipwrecks that occurred there. Pfly (talk) 12:03, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Isn't this a misunderstanding of the word 'tears', which seems to come from "to tear, to rip, to rend"? I cannot find the translation in any online Arabic dictionaries but one, which says "مندب" (mandab) = "scarred"; this is probably related to "نَدَبَ" (nadaba) scar, or "نَدِبَ" (nadiba) = to scab. Could any native speakers of arabic (or Yemeni arabic) comment on this? --AtonX (talk) 14:10, 19 May 2008 (UTC)


 * No, tears is the correct translation. Look fe. at this article from a Saudi Arabian news paper (www.alriyadh.com/1695725).
 * The headline makes a direct reference to the name Gates of tears (here as "Gates of Houthi Tears", a fighting fraction in the recent war in Yemen).--212.95.5.11 (talk) 16:16, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

".... according to an Arab legend, from the numbers who were drowned by the earthquake which separated Asia and Africa." Can anyone provide a reference for this interesting information? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ntsukunyane Mphanya (talk • contribs) 06:34, 22 October 2009 (UTC)


 * The slaves did not like being enslaved, even if they did not drown. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.53.53.66 (talk) 10:25, 4 January 2017 (UTC)


 * As far as I know the name derives from the danger of piracy. Which is still an issue even today. That said, in former times piracy, slavery and shipwrecking (piracy by beachcombers) were always a combined threat. A similar dangerous region was the North African-coastline in the Atlantic, also due to the currents there.--212.95.5.11 (talk) 16:00, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Gate of Grief
This version of the name is not mentioned. But it is elsewhere in Wiki. Myrvin (talk) 16:42, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Crossing teh Red Sea?
In section Movement out of Africa crossing the Bab-el-Mandeb straits is a matter of speculation. Or heavenly intervention? Anyway, "cn" to remove or support speculation. Kortoso (talk) 20:09, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Bab el-Mandeb
The WP:Commonname for this strait is by far the "Bab el-Mandeb". "Mandeb Strait" is not anywhere near as common. Middayexpress (talk) 18:29, 4 January 2015 (UTC)
 * I quite agree. But I think it should be Bab-el-Mandeb rather than Bab el-Mandeb.--Lubiesque (talk) 20:52, 4 January 2015 (UTC)
 * "Strait of Djibouti" and "Bab al-Mandab" (with an "a" near the end) are both other common names. Should they be mentioned? Maybe redirected? 66.210.172.71 (talk) 18:32, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

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United Kingdom in 1799
Not a historical term (maybe used informally at the time). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.222.153.46 (talk) 01:49, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

I edited the "name" section to clarify that "Bab" means "gate".
I added "In "Bab-el-Mandeb", "Bab" refers to "gate" while "Mandeb" refers to "lamentation"." to the "Name" section, because I spent quite a bit of time searching around before I found cofirmation from Google Translate that "Bab" means/refers to "gate" and "Mandeb" refers to "lamentation" and not vice versa. The intro contains "lit" which when moused over causes a pop up of "literal translation" (it was only after I paid extremely close attention, while I was editing, that I noticed I *could* mouse over the word "lit." (the dotted line under it is easy to miss, and it was only when I noticed that "lit." was not in the editing window that I was able to figure out eventually that I could mouse over the "lit." in the article)) but it wasn't clear to me that this implied that he word order is the same. Ideally, the pop-up would be made 1. easier to notice as an option, and 2. specify that "literal translation" means "same word meanings and order". But I probably wouldn't have permission to do that even if I knew how, which I don't. Polar Apposite (talk) 19:52, 16 October 2022 (UTC)

The first map is a bit misleading.
The first map in the article seems to show a huge lake in northern Ethiopia that extends across the border into Eritrea (which in reality does not exist. Should a better map be found? Polar Apposite (talk) 20:10, 16 October 2022 (UTC)