Sea or bay
Syrtes Minores
Lesser Syrtis · Golf von Gabes (Miller)
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Syrtes Minores, the Lesser Syrtes, is the Gulf of Gabès on the coast of Tunisia, and the Tabula places it far too far east. The first letter of the second word has since been lost and others are damaged, but early printed editions preserve the full reading. The name is probably Phoenician rather than Greek. Ancient sailors feared the gulf for its tide-like currents and shifting sandbanks, and the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela called it harbourless and deadly, full of shoals and a restless ebb and flow. Its sandy shores were reputed to shelter robbers.