{"id":22909,"date":"2026-03-17T06:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/22909\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T06:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:51:10","slug":"inside-qeshm-irans-underground-missile-fortress-and-geological-marvel-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/22909\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Qeshm, Iran\u2019s underground missile fortress and geological marvel | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beneath the labyrinthine salt caves and emerald mangrove forests of Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, a different kind of architecture lies buried.<\/p>\n

While tourists once flocked to this \u201copen-air geological museum\u201d to get a glimpse of its surreal rock formations, the world\u2019s gaze is now fixed on what lies beneath the coral: Iran\u2019s \u201cunderground missile cities\u201d.<\/p>\n

As the United States-Israel war on Iran has erupted, Qeshm has transitioned from a free-trade and tourists\u2019 paradise to a front-line fortress \u2013 and the ultimate strategic prize for US Marines currently being deployed to the strait. <\/p>\n

Its sheer size \u2013 approximately 1,445 square kilometres (558 square miles) \u2013 allows it to physically dominate the entrance to the strait from the Gulf, acting as a cork in the world\u2019s most vital energy transit passage.<\/p>\n

These days, the island\u2019s 148,000 residents \u2013 primarily Sunni Muslims who speak the unique Bandari dialect \u2013 live at the intersection of this ancient natural beauty and modern military tensions. Their lives are still dictated by the sea, which is celebrated every year during the \u201cNowruz Sayyadi\u201d (Fisherman\u2019s New Year), when all fishing stops to honour the ocean\u2019s bounty.<\/p>\n

But on March 7 \u2013 one week into the war on Iran \u2013 US air strikes targeted a critical desalination plant<\/a> on the island. The strike, which Tehran branded a \u201cflagrant crime\u201d against civilians, cut off fresh water supplies to 30 surrounding villages.<\/p>\n

In a swift retaliatory move, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched strikes against US forces at the Juffair base in Bahrain, alleging the attack on Qeshm had been launched from a neighbouring Gulf state.<\/p>\n

Here is what we know about the strategic importance and history of the island.<\/p>\n

\"AThis April 30, 2023 photo shows a general view of Iran\u2019s Gulf island of Qeshm. Years of sanctions on Iran have taken their toll, but on the strategically located island, people can still find goods from major global brands otherwise out of reach [Atta Kenare\/AFP]\u2018Missile cities\u2019 \u2013 the fortress in the strait<\/p>\n

Today, the island\u2019s modern industrial facade, bolstered by its status as a Free Trade-Industrial Zone since 1989, is overshadowed by its role as Iran\u2019s \u201cunsinkable aircraft carrier\u201d.<\/p>\n

Located just 22km (14 miles) south of the port city of Bandar Abbas, Qeshm dominates the Clarence Strait (Kuran) and acts as the primary platform for Iran\u2019s \u201casymmetric\u201d naval power, say analysts.<\/p>\n

While exact figures regarding the number of Iranian fast-attack boats and coastal batteries hidden within the island\u2019s subterranean labyrinths remain heavily classified, their strategic intent is clear. Retired Lebanese Brigadier General Hassan Jouni, a military and strategic expert, told Al Jazeera that Qeshm houses \u201cstriking Iranian capabilities\u201d within what is described as an underground \u201cmissile city\u201d. These vast networks, Jouni said, are designed for one primary purpose: to effectively control or close the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

This, they have successfully done. Shipping traffic through the strait was effectively halted last week when Iran threatened to strike ships attempting to pass.<\/p>\n

Now, only a handful of ships<\/a> carrying vital oil and gas supplies to the rest of the world are being allowed through, as countries scramble to negotiate deals with Iran for their own tankers and as the administration of US President Donald Trump attempts to assemble a naval convoy of warships<\/a> to forcibly open the waterway.<\/p>\n

As Qeshm becomes the focal point of a 21st-century energy war, however, its silent salt caves and ancient shrines serve as a reminder that while past empires and military coalitions like those of the Portuguese and British have eventually faded, the geological fortress of the strait remains anchored in the turbulent tides of history.<\/p>\n

\"IraniansIranians collect drinking water at the Tala (Gold) Wells in Laft village on Qeshm Island in February 2001. The area contains 366 wells, the number of days in a leap year, which were dug approximately 2,000 years ago. Qeshm Island, in southern Iran\u2019s Hormozgan Province, is located 1,060km (660 miles) southeast of Tehran [File: Henghameh Fahimi\/AFP]An island of many names<\/p>\n

Known in Arabic as Jazira-al-\u1e6cawila (the Long Island), Qeshm\u2019s identity was forged by a succession of empires.<\/p>\n

According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica<\/a>, the Greek explorer Nearchus referred to it as Oaracta, and saw the legendary tomb of Erythras, the namesake of the Erythraean Sea, there. By the 9th century, Islamic geographers were referring to it as Abarkawan, a name later folk-etymologised as Jazira-ye Gavan or \u201cCow Island\u201d.<\/p>\n

The island was deemed so strategically important that the rulers of Hormuz moved their entire court there in 1301 to escape Tartar attacks. For centuries, it served as the \u201cwater barrel\u201d of the region, providing vital drinking water to the arid Kingdom of Hormuz on the eastern side of the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

The island\u2019s wealth was so legendary that in 1552, the Ottoman commander Piri Reis raided it, seizing what contemporary accounts described as \u201cthe richest prize that could be found in all the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

The island\u2019s colonial history is equally turbulent.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese built a massive stone fort on Qeshm in 1621. And a year later, a combined Persian and English force expelled the Portuguese from that fort in a battle that claimed the life of Britain\u2019s famed Arctic navigator William Baffin.<\/p>\n

By the 19th century, the British had established a naval base at Basidu (Bassadore), which remained a hub for the British Indian Navy until 1863. It wasn\u2019t until 1935 that the British coaling station was finally abandoned at the request of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the then-shah of Iran.<\/p>\n

A museum under fire<\/p>\n

Beyond the military watchtowers and the IRGC\u2019s underground silos, Qeshm remains one of the most ecologically diverse locations in the Middle East. It is home to the Hara Mangrove Forest, a vital breeding ground for migratory birds, and the Qeshm Geopark \u2013 the first of its kind in the region to be recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), an honour it attained in 2006.<\/p>\n

\"QESHMTwo women on paddleboards are seen relaxing in the quiet waters of Hara Mangrove Forest on February 28, 2021 on Qeshm Island, Iran [File: Kaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images]<\/p>\n

The island\u2019s landscape includes:<\/p>\n

The Valley of Stars: A complex network of canyons and rock pillars carved by millennia of erosion. Local legends claim the valley was formed by a falling star that shattered the earth.
\n\"TouristsTourists visit the Valley of Stars, one of the sightseeing centres on Qeshm island in the Gulf off Iran\u2019s southern coast, on May 1, 2023 [File: Atta Kenare\/AFP]
\nNamakdan Salt Cave: One of the world\u2019s longest salt caves, stretching for more than 6km (3.7 miles). Its crystalline formations are hundreds of millions of years old, containing some of the purest salt in the Persian Gulf.
\nChahkooh Canyon: A deep, narrow corridor of limestone and salt, where vertical walls create a natural cathedral of stone.
\n\"HORMOZGAN,An April 16, 2023 view of Chahkooh Canyon, which attracts domestic and foreign tourists, located on Qeshm Island in Hormozgan Province, Iran [File: Fatemeh Bahrami\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beneath the labyrinthine salt caves and emerald mangrove forests of Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[270,177,154,44,647,34,46,49,179,39,88,1520,51,57,73],"class_list":["post-22909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-persian-gulf","tag-bahrain","tag-conflict","tag-energy","tag-explainer","tag-features","tag-iran","tag-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-persian-gulf","tag-show-types","tag-tourism","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116243194337441463","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}