Hormozgan province

Hormozgan Province (استان هرمزگان) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the south of the country, in Iran's Region 2, facing Oman, UAE and the Hormuz Straits. Its area is , and its provincial capital is Bandar Abbas. The province has fourteen islands in the Persian Gulf and of coastline. At the time of the National Census of 2006, Hormuzgan province showed a population of 1,365,377 people in 303,323 households. At the following census in 2011, the population had increased to 1,578,183 in 396,927 households. By the time of the last census conducted in 2016, the population had risen to 1,776,415 in 493,660 households. Although Hormozgan is known to have been settled during the Achaemenid era when Nearchus passed through the region, recorded history of the main port of Hormozgan (Bandar‐e Hormoz) begins with Ardashir I of Persia of the Sassanid empire. The province is said to have been particularly prosperous between 241 BC and 211 BC, but grew even further in trade and commercial significance after the arrival of the Islamic era. Marco Polo visited the port of Bandar Abbas in 1272 and 1293. He reported widespread trading in Persian jewelry, ivory and silk of Indochina, and pearls from Bahrain in the bazaars of the port of Hormuz. In 1497 Europeans landed in the region for the first time, headed by Vasco da Gama. In 1508 the Portuguese, led by Afonso de Albuquerque invaded the area with seven warships, under the pretext of protecting their interests from Egypt and Venice. The port of Hormuz at the time was considered strategically positioned for commercial interests in the Persian Gulf. Ismail I who was trying to counter the Ottoman Empire to the west, was unable to save the port from the Portuguese, until Shah Abbas I was finally able to drive them out of the Persian Gulf with the aid of the British. The name of Bandar Abbas comes directly from the name of Shah Abbas I. The British, meanwhile, were competing for influence in the region with Dutch colonialists, who invaded Qeshm Island and dispatched warships to Bandar Abbas during the final years of Shah Abbas' reign.