Karagol Sea

The Karagol Sea (カラゴルの海) is located between Tolbi and Kalay. Although called a sea, it is actually landlocked, and so is more accurately thought of as a great salt lake or inland sea.

Geography
The Karagol is completely surrounded by the continent of Angara, though beyond a river just south of the sea is the southern continent of Gondowan. These two continents seem to represent Eurasia and Africa respectively, it is likely that the Karagol Sea is based on the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps the most notable feature of the Karagol Sea is the small, uncharted island located within.

Routes
There are several land-based routes around the Karagol Sea, all of which are initially blocked, forcing the player to use a boat to reach Tolbi.

Tolbi
The longest route begins north of Tolbi, whereupon one must traverse to the eastern shore of Angara and follow it south, through Mogall Forest to Xian, whereupon they would normally be able to return to Tolbi via Silk Road (although this is blocked throughout Golden Sun). Due to the bridge which is broken as soon as the player approaches Vault, this route is blocked until after the events at Colosso.

Silk Road
Silk Road itself is a route that circumnavigates the north shore of the Karagol and acts as a trade route between Xian and Tolbi, which passes by Altin and through Kalay. This route is actually impassable at two points during the course of Golden Sun, as two separate landslides block the road. One can be cleared (or traversed around, by going through Altin Peak) and is located at the Alpine Crossing. However, the other landslide, located north of Kalay Docks, renders the route impassable for the entirety of the game.

Gondowan Cavern
The final route begins south of the Karagol Sea, and is possible to traverse through after completing a small dungeon-like cavern, called Gondowan Cave. This route can only be unblocked from the Tolbi side of the sea, hence allowing the player to return to Kalay, but not to skip the passage on the Tolbi-bound Ship.

Story
After Mt. Aleph's eruption in the beginning of the game, the Karagol, normally a sea placid enough for regular ferry runs between Kalay and Tolbi, rapidly becomes a dangerous and hostile area. The boats that usually travel the sea are attacked frequently, to the point that, despite the large influx of tourists wishing to see Colosso and the blockage of the Silk Road land route, the sailors become extremely reluctant to set sail. Eventually, Isaac's chase across Weyard brings him to the shores of the Karagol, only to find that there is no possible way of getting to the other side without taking a ship across, so his party joined up with a group of tourists and bought tickets on the Tolbi-bound Ship. However, due to a small sailor revolt, setting sail proves no easy task. Isaac's party, along with the warriors Sean and Ouranos, has to agree to work as bodyguards to protect the various passengers and crew, which they are happy to do. But this is not all, as the superstitious Capitan refuses to set sail without his lucky Anchor Charm which is stolen by a sailor fearful of returning to the sea.

After finding this charm and vowing to protect the oarsmen, Isaac's party finally sets out to sea, only to be attacked by various monsters, the greatest of which is a mighty Kraken, which manages to defeat both Sean and Ouranos before being slain by the party of Adepts. Eventually, the boat does manage to reach Tolbi, but the ordeal proves too great for the ship's Captain and he decides to make the trip a one-way voyage, fearful that he too will meet the fate of his Ferry's replacement ship, which was lost en route to Kalay. As of the end of Golden Sun, no boats dare run across the now infamous Karagol Sea.

Following the Golden Sun Event, the continents of Angara and Gondowan are no longer physically connected; because of this, the Karagol Sea becomes a part of the ocean.

Cultural references
The Karagol Sea appears to be a reference to both the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea of Eurasia.

Karagöl means "Black Lake" in Turkish, and is the name of several of crater lakes throughout the country of Turkey, which seems to be the primary influence on the character of the town of Kalay. One notable lake known as the Karagöl is the on Mount Yamanlar, an extinct volcano on the east coast of the Mediterranean associated with the Greek myths of Tantalus, who was forced to endure eternal punishment in Tartarus and whose tomb is below the lake. The Turkish name of the Black Sea is Karadeniz, sharing the same root 'Kara', meaning Black.

During the events of the first two games, shape of the Karagol Sea is more closely akin to that of the Black Sea than that of the Mediterranean; however, by the time of Dark Dawn, the landmasses north and west of the former Karagol Sea have begun to look a lot more like that of southwestern Europe and the sea can be fully associated with the Mediterranean.

Trivia

 * The music that plays on the Tolbi-bound Ship while crossing the Karagol Sea was used for an E3 teaser trailer of Golden Sun DS in June of 2009.
 * In Animal Crossing for the GCN, Gulliver sometimes mentions he found the item he gives the player from the Karagol Sea.
 * Though the Crossbone Isle is located in the Karagol Sea story-wise, the island that represents it on the World Map does not actually exist in the Karagol Sea's area of the World Map. The island is instead located far beyond the boundaries of the main World Map area, to the west of Imil in Golden Sun and to the west of Prox in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and can only be reached through use of a walk through walls hack via an external exploit device, such as an Action Replay or Code Breaker Advance.