Bosphorus

The Bosphorus is a narrow strait about 30 kilometers long that connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, separating the Balkan peninsula from Asia Minor and Europe from Asia. The city of Constantinople sits at the southern end of the Bosphorus. Together, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus are known as the Turkish Straits; because they allow navigation between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, these were crucial pathways for transcontinental commerce in the Middle Ages, particularly in the 14th and 15th centuries after Mamluk expansion restricted Silk Road trade through the Levant. Dati never uses the name Bosphorus in La sfera, referring to it only, for example, as "the narrow mouth" (la bocca stretta). Perhaps this is also why it does not appear on any of the Sfera maps, although the width he gives it (2 miles) is often noted on those maps that have distacne markings