Kattegat
 |
The Baltic Sea |
The
Kattegat (
Danish), or
Kattegatt (
Swedish), is a
bay of the
North Sea and a continuation of the
Skagerrak, bounded by
Denmark and
Sweden. The
Baltic Sea drains into the Kattegat through the
Oresund and the
Danish Straits.
Waterways that drain into the Kattegat are the rivers of
Göta älv at
Gothenburg, together with
Lagan,
Nissan,
Ätran and
Viskan from the province of
Halland on the Swedish side, and the river of
Gudenå from
Jutland, in Denmark.
The main islands of the Kattegat are
Samsø,
Læsø and
Anholt, where the latter two, due to their dry summer climate, are referred to as the Danish
desert belt.
The name Kattegat derives from the
Dutch words
Kat (cat) and
Gat (hole). It refers to the
medieval navigation, where captains spoke of this area to be as narrow as a cat's hole, since the the passage itself is very narrow, at some point a mere 3,84
kilometers (2,38
miles).In keeping with sailors' well-known use of the language of bodily functions, one might paraphrase the concept by stating that, to seafaring men who must use it, the Kattegat has always been the anus of the
Baltic. "Cat's hole" does not mean a cat's den. More formal but less accurate (in this respect) reference works sometimes substitute other parts of the cat's anatomy, leading to some confusion.
See also: Scandinavia
