Hormuz Island

The first island we visited in Persian Gulf was Hormuz Island. The name may seem familiar now if you follow latest news and heard about Strait of Hormuz.

We went there by small boat with some local people and two goats. Amazing journey. The boat was going very fast so we had to hold on to whatever we could.

First we visited an old Portuguese fort. We didn't know that then but we do now that it's called Fort of Our Lady of the Conception, as it states in Wikipedia (vide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Conception_in_Hormoz_island ).

View from top of the fort

View of entrance

It faces another fort (or castle) on Qeshm Island. we found a guide and he showed us around. the fort is almost forgotten and it falls apart because there are not enough funds to take better care of it. We could see how the ground level changed, especially when we entered the church within the fort. The columns seem really small now but you can imagine how high they once were. The good thing is that you can clearly see that arches are made of coral (well, it was 16th century).

There is also a small exhibition of things found there (especially military, like cannons or cannonballs).

After visiting the fort we had to rest because of the heat and sat by a shop. There were children staring at us. Some of them were too afraid to come closer but had to do it anyway, since we were sitting right next to the entrance, trying to catch a patch of shadow. We had some water and continued.

Mohsen invited us for a ride by a boat around the island.

And that's something really worth doing. The island is very diverse, it's covered by sedimentary rock and volcanic layers but it's also very colorful from iron (reddish), salt (white) and shiny mineral on beaches. We could see that water created some caves and it would be very exciting to go canoeing around Hormuz.

The only thing that spoiled the view was litter and crashed boat. I mean, it was not very dirty and i know people live there and it's no reservation but that one thing took away the feeling of visiting a place where civilization hadn't come yet. And some beaches look like such a place. We got off to walk around a bit and saw a cave where water came during high tides.

I don't remember exactly if it was before or after the ride around the island but while we were waiting for another boat, there were some kids playing in the water and when they saw us, tourists, they were shouting "Mister! How are you? Thank you!". We didn't react (except of laughing a bit), so they gave up after a while.

If you ever be around, visit Hormuz and enjoy. But if I ever go back, I guess it will be in December or January :)