The Gulf of Taranto (Italian: Golfo di Taranto, Latin: Sinus Tarentinus) is a gulf of the Ionian sea, in southern Italy. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The Ionian Sea. ...

The Gulf of Taranto is almost square, 140 km long and wide, and is delimited by the capes Santa Maria di Leuca (east, Apulia) and Colonna (the ancient Cape Lacinium, west, in Calabria). It is surrounded by three Italian regions, Apulia, Basilicata, and Calabria. The most important rivers are the Basento, the Sinni, and the Agri. Apulia (official Italian name: Puglia) is a region in southeastern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Otranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. ... Calabria, formerly Brutium, is a region in southern Italy which occupies the toe of the Italian peninsula south of Naples. ... Apulia (official Italian name: Puglia) is a region in southeastern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Otranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. ... Basilicata is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Puglia to the east, Calabria to the south, it has one short coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea and another of the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea to the south-east. ... Calabria, formerly Brutium, is a region in southern Italy which occupies the toe of the Italian peninsula south of Naples. ...

The main cities on the gulf are Taranto and Gallipoli. Also the Greek colonies (Magna Graecia) of Croton, Heraclea, Thurii, and Sybaris were founded on Gulf of Taranto. Map of Italy showing Taranto in the bottom right Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, southern Italy. ... Gallipoli, called Gelibolu in modern Turkish, is a town in northwestern Turkey. ... Map of Magna Graecia Italy. ... Croton may also refer to a plant genus. ... Heraclea was the name of a large number of ancient cities founded by the Greeks. ... Thurii, or Thueium, was a city of Magna Graecia on the Gulf of Taranto, near the site of the older Sybaris. ... Sybaris, a city of Magna Graecia, on the Gulf of Taranto, between the rivers Crathis (Crati) and Sybaris (Coscile), which now meet 3 miles from the sea, but in ancient times had independent mouths, was the oldest Greek colony in this region. ...

Coordinates:

• NW Lat/Long: N 41.00/ W 17.41
• NE Lat/Long: N 40.59/ E 15.51
• SW Lat/Long: N 39.58/ E 15.51
• SE Lat/Long: N 40.00/ W 17.41

Italy claims the whole gulf as national waters, thus closed to international traffic. This position, which is a similar position to Libya on the Gulf of Sidra, is not recognized by some other countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom. The Gulf of Sidra is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea of the northern coast of Libya; it is also known as Gulf of Sirte. ...