Bay of Bengal

Bay of Bengal
Map of Bay of Bengal
Location	South Asia
Coordinates	15°N 88°E / 15°N 88°E / 15; 88Coordinates: 15°N 88°E / 15°N 88°E / 15; 88
Type	Bay
Primary inflows	Indian Ocean
Basin countries	India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka
Max. length	2,090 km (1,300 mi)
Max. width	1,610 km (1,000 mi)
Surface area	2,172,000 km2 (839,000 sq mi)
Average depth	2,600 m (8,500 ft)
Max. depth	4,694 m (15,400 ft)

The Bay of Bengal, the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Roughly triangular, it is bordered mostly by India and Sri Lanka to the west, Bangladesh to the north, and Myanmar (Burma) and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (India) to the east.

The Bay of Bengal occupies an area of 2,172,000 square kilometres (839,000 sq mi). A number of large rivers – the Ganges and its tributaries such as the Padma and Hooghly, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries such as the Jamuna and Meghna, other rivers such as the Irrawaddy River, Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna and Kaveri flow into the Bay of Bengal. Among the important ports are Chennai, Chittagong, Kolkata, Mongla, Paradip, Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam and Yangon.

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bay of Bengal as follows:

In ancient Hindu scriptures, this water body is referred to as 'Mahodadhi' (Sanskrit: महोदधि, lit. great water receptacle) while it appears as Sinus Gangeticus or Gangeticus Sinus, meaning "Gulf of the Ganges", in ancient maps.