Kharg Island

Kharg Island (Persian: جزیره خارگ, Persian pronunciation: [xɒːrɡ]), also spelled Khark Island and often referred to as the "Forbidden Island", is a continental island of Iran in the Persian Gulf. The island is 25 kilometres (16 mi) off the coast of Iran and 660 kilometres (410 mi) northwest of the Strait of Hormuz. Administered by the adjacent coastal Bushehr Province, Kharg Island provides a sea port for the export of up to 90% of Iran's oil products, as well as supplying storage for up to 30 million barrels (5 million cubic metres) of oil. The island lies close to several offshore oil fields, including the Faridun, Darius, Cyrus, and Ardašir fields. The city of Kharg and the Jazireh-ye Khark Lighthouse are located on the island, which has its own freshwater supply. Before it developed into a major oil terminal in the 1960s, Iranian writer Jalal Al-e-Ahmad famously called the island "The Orphan Pearl of the Persian Gulf.” The island contains several important archaeological sites, including ruins of a Christian monastery dating from possibly as far back as the 7th century. There are also tombs, temples, and the Achaemenid inscription of cuneiform writing dating from between 550 and 330 BCE. It has been an important trading post for centuries, controlled by the Portuguese Empire from the 16th to the 17th century and by the Dutch colonial empire in the 18th century. The first depictions of the island appear on 16th-century Portuguese maps by Fernão Vaz Dourado, Lopo Homem and Diogo Homem. It was first developed into an oil terminal in the 1960s under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in partnership with American oil company Amoco. Military installations on the island were bombed by the United States during the Iran war in March and April 2026.