Siraf

Siraf lies on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf, in Bushehr province, beside the modern town of Taheri. In the ninth and tenth centuries it was one of the great ports of the Indian Ocean world. Ships from Siraf sailed to India, to the ports of southern China and to East Africa, and Arabic and Persian writers of the time described a rich city of tall houses built of teak brought from India.

Its decline was gradual. An earthquake in the late tenth century is reported to have damaged the city badly, and over the following centuries trade shifted elsewhere in the Gulf, especially to the island of Kish and later to Hormuz.

Between 1966 and 1973 the British archaeologist David Whitehouse led excavations here, uncovering the great mosque, houses, a bazaar and harbour works, and finding Chinese porcelain, Indian goods and glass among the debris of trade. On the cliffs behind the town are rock-cut tombs whose dating is uncertain. Today visitors can walk among the excavated foundations near the sea, then up into the hills, and can see how fishing boats still pull up on the beach where merchant ships once loaded cargo for southern China.