'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎116r] (236/862)

COASTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. 153
inland for 50 miles, and the head is split up into many intersecting
channels. It is about i| miles wide and has several unsurveyed
branches. There is an anchorage 20 miles from the entrance. The
port of Bandar Shahpur is 40 miles up the channel at the edge of a
reclaimed mud island, and is the terminus of the Iranian railway to
Tehran and the Caspian Sea which was opened in 1938. It is now
occupied and administered by Allied military and naval personnel.
Port facilities have been greatly improved to handle increasing sup
plies to Russia; a repair dock was constructed near by but has been
removed. There are oil loading-berths 7 miles east-north-east, sup
plied by pipe-line from Abadan. Bandar Mashur is a small settlement
on a mound in the marshes at the head of KhorMusa: it has brackish
wells and dry-weather aircraft landing-ground.
Tidal mud-flats continue east of Khor Musa for 35 miles, with an
extensive bay, Khor Ghazlan, in the east. Ras al Bahrgan is at the
east end of the mud-flats, and is formed by the delta of the Hindian
river which enters Khor Ghazlan. Inland of the flats is a wide grassy
plain, with no intervening marsh belt. The plain, which contains
strips of marsh in wet weather, stretches north-east for more than
30 miles to the foothills of the Khuzistan mountains.
4. The Persian Coast, from Ras al Bahrgan to Minab
General (fig. 32)
The Persian coast of the gulf will be described from north-west to
south-east in four sections: Ras al Bahrgan at the head to Bushire;
Bushire to Naband (including the Tangistan coast); Naband to
Lingeh (the Shibkuh coast); and Lingeh to Minab, at the entrance.
The whole of this coast is backed by high limestone ranges, and
the coastal plain, which varies in width, contains sandstone hills. The
mountains and hills trend south-east and are very rugged; the lime
stone ranges have scattered shrubs and fruit-trees, but the sandstone
ranges are completely barren. The coastal plain is known as Garmsir
(winter pasture), as it is almost unbearably hot and humid in summer.
There are patches of cultivation and date-groves near the villages.
The population is mixed, the cultivators being Persian and the fisher
men and sailors Arab.
The ports (Bushire, Lingeh, and Bandar Abbas) are all inadequate
and poorly protected from the prevailing winds, and there are few
anchorages along the coast. A dry-weather motor-road or track
follows the coast the whole way, but communications inland are