Stop 1 · Gibraltar
Gibraltar
The only entrance to the Mediterranean from the ocean. Around 300 ships a day pass through, and the water flows in at the surface and out below.
Towns guarding the world's shipping chokepoints
Five narrow places where the sea pinches shut. Whoever holds these towns has, at some point in history, been able to close a strait to the world's shipping.
The five stops
Stop 2 · United Kingdom
Dover
The Strait of Dover is the busiest shipping lane in the world — roughly 400 vessels a day, crossed by ferries at right angles to the traffic.
Stop 3 · Italy
Messina
Scylla and Charybdis were placed in this strait by Homer. A bridge across it has been proposed, funded and cancelled repeatedly since the 1970s.
Stop 4 · Malaysia
Malacca
About a quarter of all traded goods and much of East Asia's oil pass through this strait — some 90,000 vessels a year.
Stop 5 · Djibouti
Djibouti City
Bab-el-Mandeb carries everything sailing between Europe and Asia via Suez. The country's economy runs almost entirely on that position.
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