Red Sea (Arabic: البحر الأحمر; transliterated: al-Bahr al-Ahmar) is one of the 26 wilayat or states of Sudan. It has an area of 218,887 km2 and an estimated population of approximately 700,000 (2000). Port Sudan is the capital of the state. Arabic (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Due to the fact that the Arabic language has a number of phonemes that have no equivalent in English or other European languages, a number of different transliteration methods have been invented to represent certain Arabic characters, due to various conflicting goals: A desire to stay consistent with traditional usage... Anglo-Egyptian Sudan had eight mudiriyas, or provinces, which were ambiguous when created but became well defined by the beginning of the Second World War. ... Port Sudan is the capital of the state of Red Sea and has nearly 300,000 residents. ...