Kharg Island

Kharg is a small coral island in the northern Persian Gulf, about 25 kilometres off the coast of Bushehr province. Its fresh water and sheltered anchorage have drawn sailors and settlers since antiquity, and its history runs from early Christianity to the oil age.

On the island are the remains of a large Christian monastery, excavated by the French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman around 1960. The complex, about 96 by 85 metres, held a church, around nineteen cells for monks, a library and a courtyard. It is usually dated between the late Sasanian period and the early Islamic centuries, when Christian communities of the Church of the East lived along the Gulf coasts. Nearby are rock-cut tombs and the shrine of Mir Mohammad, a local Muslim saint.

In 1753 the Dutch East India Company, led by Baron Tiddo von Kniphausen, set up a trading post and fort on Kharg, hoping to make it a free port for Gulf commerce. The venture ended in 1766, when the island was taken by Mir Muhanna, the ruler of Bandar Rig on the mainland.

In the twentieth century Kharg became Iran’s main crude-oil export terminal, its deep water allowing large tankers to load close to the shore, and much of the island is now taken up by oil installations. Access for visitors is restricted, but the island’s monastery, tombs and old Dutch site remain a reminder that Kharg was a crossroads of faiths and trade long before oil.