"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎١‎١‎٩] (٨٦٢/٢٤٢)

COASTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF
x 57
chief mountain route to the interior. But it has only an open road
stead and is not as important to-day as the river-port of Khorramshahr
(at the head of the gulf) which now has better facilities. Bushire has
been the headquarters of the British Political Resident in the gulf
since 1778. The town is at the north-west end of a ridged peninsula
connected to the mainland by a strip of salt marsh (photo. 68). The
peninsula, which was the Mesambria of Arrian, is a raised coral reef
16 miles long and about 5 miles wide; the seaward edge has low cliffs.
The roadstead is exposed to strong winds, and large vessels have to
anchor 7 miles out and are sometimes cut off from the shore for
several days in winter. Small vessels can use the more sheltered inner
anchorage 3 miles north of the town. The best landing-place is at the
new Customs jetty. Steamers of the British India Steam Navigation
Company provide regular communication with Iraq and India, and
Bushire has an airfield with services to other Persian towns and a
Government wireless station. The British submarine cables to India
land at a telegraph station at Rishahr, 6 miles south of the town. The
route to Shiraz and the interior has to cross the strip of salt marsh,
which is liable to floods in winter, but an all-weather motor-road was
planned for 1937. The climate of Bushire is pleasant in winter but
very hot and humid in summer, when malaria is prevalent. The
water-supply is from wells in the peninsula. The population of the
peninsula has decreased recently to about 10,000. The European
inhabitants, who number about 30, live at Rishahr in villas among
gardens and fruit-trees. Rishahr is on the site of an ancient city, and
it has a ruined Portuguese fort. It is connected to Bushire by a motor-
road. The south-east end of the peninsula is a low point.
Bushire to Naband (fig. 41)
South-east of the Bushire peninsula the coast is known as the
Tangistan coast, though it includes the districts of Tangistan and
Dashti. The coastal plain is only 1 or 2 miles wide and contains many
small villages surrounded by date-groves. It is backed for the first
50 miles by a narrow mountain range whose most conspicuous peak,
Buriyal (Asses’ Ears), is 2,680 feet high. Between this coastal range
and the main mountain range, here more than 20 miles inland, is the
cultivated Khurmuj plain which is drained south-east into the Mand
river. The wide valley of this river opens to the sea south of the
Buriyal range, and the mud-flats and marshes of its delta form the
coast for the next 20 miles. The river is navigable for some distance
by small craft, and the dry-weather coastal road crosses its mouth