After rainfall, the shores of Hormuz Island in Iran reveal breathtaking shades of red.
But beyond being a spectacular natural phenomenon that draws tourists from around the world, it is also remarkably useful.
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Ochre is a natural clay-earth pigment, formed from a mixture of iron oxide in varying grades with clay and sand.
The rocks of Hormuz Island contain a high concentration of iron oxide, which gives them their distinctive red color.
The locals use this earth as a spice, to make sauces or to spread on traditional bread. It also serves as an important colorant for the cosmetics and textile industries.
Excessive mining of the earth for export led the Iranian government to restrict the practice, in order to preserve this extraordinary natural resource and continue leveraging it as a tourism draw.
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Hormuz Island is composed of ancient salt layers that pushed up from beneath the sea and hardened.
It sits at the center of the Strait of Hormuz — which all of us are now encountering in the news — and historically held great strategic significance, as it allowed easy control over the strait.
In the 16th century, Portugal — still a global power at the time — controlled the island, a fact that greatly angered the Persian Shah, who lacked sufficient military force to capture it. He forged an alliance with the English, who possessed a powerful naval fleet, and together with Persian infantry they laid siege to the island and took it.
In exchange for the conquest of the island, the East India Company gained access to the Persian Gulf states, and its trade there flourished. The Persians decided not to refortify the island, so as not to risk it falling into hostile hands, and instead focused the development of their trading port and naval forces on the port of Bandar Abbas — still considered one of Iran's most important ports to this day.
In the current war, Iran has declared the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, deploying a fleet of small, dangerous vessels used to attack ships with missiles and explosives.
The United States and Israel are in turn making intensive efforts to neutralize Iran's naval capabilities as quickly as possible, in order to prevent the large-scale disruption to global trade that is already beginning to make itself felt.
A significant part of this activity is focused on the port of Bandar Abbas — which, as a result of these distant historical events, now finds itself at the center of affairs rather than Hormuz Island itself.
In the video: The shores of Hormuz in the rain | Footage: The Guardian
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👋 Hi, I'm Shlomo Strauss — follow me for more interesting content on science and technology.