Bandar Abbas
— — the port where the Persian Gulf turns the corner.
Not only on a wall.
“Iran's southern doorway, set on the narrows where the Persian Gulf meets the Gulf of Oman. The city looks out at Hormuz and Qeshm, two islands the colour of rust and salt, across water that has carried every empire's ships in turn. The bazaar smells of cardamom and dried lime. In summer the humidity climbs past anything the rest of Iran knows. The women wear bright printed boregheh masks, a southern tradition the highlands do not share.
Bandar Abbas, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Bandar Abbas is the capital of Hormozgan Province on Iran's southern coast, at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz where the Persian Gulf meets the Gulf of Oman. The city holds roughly 530,000 residents and is the country's largest commercial port, handling over half of Iran's maritime container traffic. It sits at sea level with a hot, humid subtropical climate, with summer temperatures and dew points among the highest sustained anywhere on earth. Shah Abbas I established the modern port in the 1620s after taking the harbour from the Portuguese with English naval help.
Two islands sit immediately offshore. Hormuz Island, about eight kilometres south, is famous for its iron-rich red soil that locals call gelak and use as a pigment and in regional dishes, and for the ruins of the Portuguese fortress built in 1507 and held until Shah Abbas's siege. Qeshm Island, the largest in the Persian Gulf at roughly 1,500 square kilometres, lies just to the west and holds UNESCO Global Geopark status for its salt caves, the Stars Valley canyon, and a Hara mangrove forest covering about 200 square kilometres.
Summer in Bandar Abbas is unlike anything in the Iranian interior. Daytime temperatures regularly pass 40°C, and the dew point in July and August can sit above 30°C, among the highest on the planet. The cooler months from November through March are the only travel window, with daytime highs in the mid-twenties. The bazaar comes alive in those months, and the boregheh, the brightly embroidered face masks worn by the women of the Bandari coast, are most visible in the morning market.