- Having now arrived at HORMUZ, it is time to see what can be made
of the Geography of the route from Kerman to that port.
The port of Hormuz, [which had taken the place of Kish as the most
important market of the Persian Gulf (H. C.)], stood upon the mainland. A
few years later it was transferred to the island which became so famous,
under circumstances which are concisely related by Abulfeda: - "Hormuz is
the port of Kerman, a city rich in palms, and very hot. One who has
visited it in our day tells me that the ancient Hormuz was devastated by
the incursions of the Tartars, and that its people transferred their abode
to an island in the sea called Zarun, near the continent, and lying west
of the old city. At Hormuz itself no inhabitants remain, but some of the
lowest order." (In Buesching, IV. 261-262.) Friar Odoric, about 1321,
found Hormuz "on an island some 5 miles distant from the main." Ibn
Batuta, some eight or nine years later, discriminates between Hormuz or
Moghistan on the mainland, and New Hormuz on the Island of Jeraun, but
describes only the latter, already a great and rich city.
The site of the Island Hormuz has often been visited and described; but I
could find no published trace of any traveller having verified the site of
the more ancient city, though the existence of its ruins was known to John
de Barros, who says that a little fort called Cuxstac (Kuhestek of P.
della Valle, II. p. 300) stood on the site. An application to Colonel
Pelly, the very able British Resident at Bushire, brought me from his own
personal knowledge the information that I sought, and the following
particulars are compiled from the letters with which he has favoured me: -
"The ruins of Old Hormuz, well known as such, stand several miles up a
creek, and in the centre of the present district of Minao. They are
extensive (though in large part obliterated by long cultivation over the
site), and the traces of a long pier or Bandar were pointed out to Colonel
Pelly. They are about 6 or 7 miles from the fort of Minao, and the Minao
river, or its stony bed, winds down towards them. The creek is quite
traceable, but is silted up, and to embark goods you have to go a farsakh
towards the sea, where there is a custom-house on that part of the creek
which is still navigable. Colonel Pelly collected a few bricks from the
ruins. From the mouth of the Old Hormuz creek to the New Hormuz town, or
town of Turumpak on the island of Hormuz, is a sail of about three
farsakhs. It may be a trifle more, but any native tells you at once that
it is three farsakhs from Hormuz Island to the creek where you land to go
up to Minao. Hormuzdia was the name of the region in the days of its
prosperity.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 299 of 655
Words from 156107 to 156614
of 342071
