Long before its days in the Bible, the Red Sea had a strange and turbulent history. Millions of years ago, this narrow strip of water between Africa and Asia totally dried out and turned the seabed into a salty plain. It then suddenly refilled due to a catastrophic megaflood. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The Red Sea was first formed around 30 million years ago when the Arabian Plate and the African Plate split apart. Initially, the sea was a narrow rift valley filled with lakes, later becoming a wider gulf when it was flooded by the Mediterranean Sea 23 million years ago.

This was a period when marine life thrived in the sea. This is known thanks to the wealth of fossil reefs found along the northern coast near Duba

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