AlbaniaCapital: Tirana. Its coast faces Italy across the Strait of Otranto. Less than 72 kilometers wide, it is where the Adriatic meets the Ionian Sea. United Nations region: Southern Europe.
Bosnia and HerzegovinaCapital: Sarajevo. Its whole coastline is about 20 kilometers. That is the shortest of the six countries on the Adriatic. United Nations region: Southern Europe.
CroatiaCapital: Zagreb. Counting its islands it has 5,835 kilometers of Adriatic coast. That is more than the other five Adriatic countries put together. United Nations region: Southern Europe.
FranceCapital: Paris. It has an Atlantic coast and a Mediterranean one. Monaco sits on its Mediterranean shore. United Nations region: Western Europe.
GreeceCapital: Athens. It has the longest Mediterranean coastline of any country. Its coast is indented and it has many islands. United Nations region: Southern Europe.
ItalyCapital: Rome. Sicily and Sardinia are both part of it. They are the two largest islands in the Mediterranean. The Adriatic is on its east side, and the Ionian Sea is off its toe and heel. United Nations region: Southern Europe.
MaltaCapital: Valletta. It lies 80 kilometers south of Italy. It is 284 kilometers east of Tunisia and 333 kilometers north of Libya, and covers 316 square kilometers. United Nations region: Southern Europe.
MonacoCapital: Monaco, a city-state. At 2.08 square kilometers it is the second-smallest country in the world, with France on three sides and the sea on the fourth. United Nations region: Western Europe.
MontenegroCapital: Podgorica. It has about 260 kilometers of Adriatic coast, islands included. United Nations region: Southern Europe.
SloveniaCapital: Ljubljana. Its coast is 46.6 kilometers long. All of it is at the north end of the Adriatic. United Nations region: Southern Europe.
SpainCapital: Madrid. Its south coast is the Alboran Sea's north shore. That sea is the westernmost part of the Mediterranean, which ends at the Strait of Gibraltar. United Nations region: Southern Europe.
Asia 5
CyprusCapital: Nicosia. The island lies in the Levantine Sea. That is the Mediterranean's easternmost part. United Nations region: Western Asia. European Union member since 2004.
IsraelOn the Levantine Sea, the Mediterranean's easternmost part. United Nations region: Western Asia.
LebanonCapital: Beirut. Its whole coast is on the Levantine Sea. That is the Mediterranean's easternmost part. United Nations region: Western Asia.
SyriaCapital: Damascus. Its Levantine Sea coast is between Turkey and Lebanon. United Nations region: Western Asia.
TurkeyCapital: Ankara. The Dardanelles and Bosporus both lie in it. They link the Aegean to the Sea of Marmara and Black Sea. United Nations region: Western Asia.
Africa 5
AlgeriaCapital: Algiers. Its coast's west end is on the Alboran Sea. That sea is the westernmost part of the Mediterranean, shared with Morocco and Spain. United Nations region: Northern Africa.
EgyptCapital: Cairo. The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, runs through it. The canal links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea without a single lock. United Nations region: Northern Africa.
LibyaCapital: Tripoli. Malta lies 333 kilometers to its north, across open sea. United Nations region: Northern Africa.
MoroccoCapital: Rabat. The Strait of Gibraltar separates it from the Iberian Peninsula. The strait, 14 kilometers wide, joins the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. United Nations region: Northern Africa.
TunisiaCapital: Tunis. The Strait of Sicily lies between it and Sicily. About 145 kilometers wide, it divides the western Mediterranean from the eastern. United Nations region: Northern Africa.
How this list was compiled: The list is the 21 member states of the United Nations with a coast on the Mediterranean Sea or an island state in it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea (the countries in clockwise order, with Cyprus and Malta as island countries; Greece with the longest Mediterranean coastline; Sicily and Sardinia as the two largest islands; the Strait of Gibraltar at 14 km; the Suez Canal, opened in 1869 and without locks; its length is left out because sources disagree) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mediterranean_countries (the three coasts; Portugal, Serbia, Jordan and others as countries sometimes called Mediterranean without a coast on the sea), checked 2026-09-19. Membership of the United Nations: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states, checked 2026-09-19 (all 21 are on the list of member states). The grouping by continent is the United Nations M49 list, https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/, checked 2026-09-19: Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Türkiye under Western Asia, Monaco under Western Europe, the five African states under Northern Africa. Shapes of the drawing that the points file flags, and places that are not member states, are not on this list and are never asked. Capitals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_in_Europe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_in_Africa and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_capitals, checked 2026-09-19. Parts of the sea and lengths of coast, all checked 2026-09-19: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriatic_Sea (the six Adriatic countries and the table of coastline lengths), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Otranto, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionian_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegean_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levantine_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alboran_Sea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Sicily, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco. The year Cyprus joined the European Union: https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/eu-countries_en, checked 2026-09-19. Positions in the hints were read off the drawing; the "largest shape" hint was checked against the areas of the drawn shapes, which an equal-area projection keeps in proportion. The views of the three groups were computed from the outlines and rings of their members with the padding rule the drawing's own groups use. Hints and detail lines written for this site. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 30°N 23°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. 2 places are too small to draw at this scale and shown as a dot. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This blank map of the Mediterranean shows the sea and the countries around it, from Spain round to Morocco, with Malta and Cyprus in the water. Print it blank, numbered or named; 21 countries are in the answer key.
Read the full guide
Three ways to print it
The sheet opens blank. Numbered puts a number on each of the 21 countries on the sea, and Named writes their names. Press Print this map, then Print the answer key. Seven small countries have rings: Monaco, Malta, Slovenia, Montenegro, Cyprus, Lebanon and Israel.
Three coasts
Eleven of the countries are on the European shore, from Spain to Greece. Five are on the Asian shore, from Turkey to Israel, and five on the African shore, from Egypt to Morocco. Portugal and Jordan are sometimes called Mediterranean, but neither has a coast on the sea, so neither has a number.
Have students write two of the smaller seas on the blank map as well: the Adriatic east of Italy and the Aegean east of Greece.
Questions and answers
Which countries border the Mediterranean Sea?
Twenty-one member states of the United Nations: Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.
Does the blank Mediterranean map show the islands?
The two island countries, Malta and Cyprus, are on it, and so are Sicily and Sardinia, the two largest islands in the sea. Very small islands are left out of the drawing.
Why are some coastal areas not numbered?
Some borders on this map are disputed. Disputed areas are shown but not asked. Palestine, whose Gaza Strip is on the coast, and Northern Cyprus are drawn as the map source draws them, without a number.
Can I use the map as a quiz?
Yes. Press Quiz yourself on this map. The Mediterranean map quiz asks the same 21 countries and can zoom to one shore at a time.