Bandar Abbas

關於Bandar Abbas

Bandar Abbas is a port city in the Central District of Bandar Abbas County, Hormozgan Province, Iran serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. Bandar Abbas is a port on the southern coast of the country, on the Persian Gulf.

The city occupies a strategic position on the narrow Strait of Hormuz (just across from Musandam Governorate, Oman). It is the location of the main base and headquarters of the Iranian Navy.

Bandar Abbas has always been a port, and as such its various names have all reflected this function. The most common name over time was Gamrūn, with various spellings. In Henry Yule's dictionary of Anglo-Indian jargon two etymologies are given; the first derived from gümrük, "customhouse" (from Late Greek kommerkion, from Latin commercium, "commerce"). The second, which Yule found much more convincing, comes from Persian kamrūn, "shrimp" (in Portuguese: camarão, similar to the former Portuguese name). Its current name derives from that of Abbas the Great (r. 1588–1629) paired with bandar – "port", meaning "Port of Abbas".

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.