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cities
bandar abbas
Bandar Abbas (previously called Gameron or
Qamerun) city in southern Iran, capital of Hormozgan
province. Bandar Abbas Port is in the middle of the Strait
of Hormoz linking the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and
is located 500km to the south of Kerman by excellent road
and Railroad. It has an international airport with regular
flights to other states of Persian Gulf.
Early in the
16th cent. the Portuguese established themselves in the
region, seizing the islands in the strait and using the
town, which they fortified and called Gamru, as a mainland
port. Shah Abbas I recaptured (c.1615) the town and
later the islands. The Dutch (without the shah's consent)
and the English (with the shah's approval) subsequently set
up trading stations there; they called the town Gombroon. In
1622, Shah Abbas renamed the town Bandar Abbas (port of
Abbas) and developed it into a major port.
During the Iran-Iraq War War (1980-1988), Bandar Abbas was
developed as the country's major commercial port to replace
Khorramshahr, which lies at the northen end of the Persian
Gulf and which had been captured and occupied by Iraqi
forces.
By the 1990s, about 75 percent of Iranian imports through
the Persian Gulf were off-loaded at Bandar Abbas. Next to
the berths for international cargo ships are docks for local
fishing craft, a large shipyard for repairing and building
ships, and naval facilities.
Bandar Abbas's major industries include cotton textile
manufacturing, fish processing, refining, aluminum smelting,
and steel milling. Outside the city, chromium, red oxide,
salt, and sulfur are mined for export. A major natural gas
field surrounds the offshore island of Hengam. Another
nearby island, Qeshm, has been developed as a free trade
zone.
As the provincial capital, Bandar Abbas is also a local
administrative center for several central government
agencies and offices. The city is connected to Tehran and
the rest of the country by air, rail, and road routes.
Bandar Abbas is a modern city with few public tourist sites,
although its bazaar is a popular attraction for shoppers.
The island of Qeshm, across from Bandar Abbas in the Strait
of Hormoz, has several old mosques, shrines, and cemeteries.
From 1793 to 1868, Iran leased Bandar Abbas to Oman. Bandar
Abbas was a small fishing port of about 17,000 people in
1955, prior to initial plans to develop it as a major harbor.
By 2001, it had grown into a major city. It has a population
of 360,280 (2001 estimate).
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