'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎123r] (250/862)

COASTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
165
miles wide, and has barren hills rising to 344 feet. The north point,
Ras al Masheh, has good anchorage to the north-west, a boat jetty,
and a landing beach. It was formerly a British naval station, but has
been handed over to the Persian Government. The island’s position
has strategic value as the gulf is here only 32 miles wide, so that the
Arabian coast can normally be seen. Henjam sound could be used
by seaplanes in good weather, but it is not suitable as a seaplane base.
Henjam has cables to Bushire and Jask; the cable to Bandar Abbas
is now broken. There are rain-water tanks at Ras al Masheh, and
good wells at Ghail village, 4 miles south-west. The island contains
valuable salt-mines. There are two small pearl-fishing villages, Ghail
and Henjam, with date-groves. A former city on the north coast was
destroyed by pirates.
Larak is a barren island 6 miles south-east of Qishm town. It is
6| miles long and 4! miles wide, and has rugged hills rising to 510
feet. It is surrounded by a reef. There is a fishing-village on the
north coast with exposed anchorage off it, and the ruins of a Dutch
fort near by. There are rain-water cisterns, but water is scarce.
Hormuz island lies about 11 miles south-east of Bandar Abbas and
23 miles west of the mouth of the Minab river. The island is about
5^ miles long and 4^ miles wide. It contains barren salt hills about
300 feet high, which are encrusted with many different-coloured
minerals, and a few white peaks rising above 700 feet in the centre.
The hills fall steeply to the sea except in the north, where there is a
low point and a shelly plain, about 1 mile wide. There is sheltered
anchorage off the north coast. Red iron oxide is mined by the Persian
Government: more than 7,000 tons were shipped to Britain in i 93 ^>
out of 13,000 tons exported. The city of Hormuz was founded at the
beginning of the fourteenth century when the entire population of
Old Hormuz emigrated from the mainland. For two centuries it was
the chief emporium of eastern trade and the centre of an empire,
though all its water and supplies had to be imported. It was captured
by the Portuguese in 1507 and remained their headquarters in the gulf
from 1514 until 1622 (p. 255), when they were expelled by the English
and Persians. The city then declined; its ruins cover the north coastal
plain, and those of the Portuguese fort are on the point. A small
fishing-village is now the only settlement.