Why is using 700 permission for directories not enough?

Wh开发者_JAVA百科y is 700 permission for directories not working in Apache (and maybe other web servers)?

We receive the 403 Forbidden status error code.

I think 700 is enough when we are using SUphp, so that the process owner is the same of the files' or directories' owner.

Directories can never be 'executed' like programs, as such the 'x' bit of the permissions for directories has the meaning that it can be 'entered' that is made the current directory. So the effective user must have 'x' permission either by user, group, or other in order to enter into it.