The Aegean Sea Αιγαίο Πέλαγος, Aigaío Pélagos; Ege Denizi, Adalar Denizi) is a sea arm of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus. The Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The Aegean Region, Turkey, consists of nine provinces in southwestern Turkey, in part bordering on the Aegean sea.

The sea was traditionally known as the Archipelago (Greek: Αρχιπέλαγος), the general sense of which has since changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally, to any island group because the Aegean Sea is remarkable for its large number of islands.