Episode 3238
Kharg Island
Sun, 2026-Mar-15 02:47 UTC
Length - 3:12
Direct Link
Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.
With 330,465 views on Saturday, 14 March 2026 our article of the day is Kharg Island.
Kharg Island (Persian: جزیره خارگ), also spelt Khark Island and often referred to as the "Forbidden Island", is a continental island of Iran in the Persian Gulf. The island is 25 km (16 mi) off the coast of Iran and 483 km (300 mi) northwest of the Strait of Hormuz. Administered by the adjacent coastal Bushehr province, Kharg Island provides a sea port for the export of up to 90% of Iran's oil products, as well as supplying storage for up to 30 million barrels of oil, and is therefore strategically important. The island lies close to several offshore oil fields, including the Faridun, Darius, Cyrus, and Ardašir fields. The city of Kharg and the Jazireh-ye Khark Lighthouse are located on the island, which has its own freshwater supply.
Before its development as a large oil terminal from the 1960s, Iranian writer Jalal Al-e-Ahmad famously called the island "the orphan pearl of the Persian Gulf".
The island contains several important archaeological sites, including ruins of a Christian monastery dating from possibly as far back as the 7th century. There are also tombs, temples, and the Achaemenid inscription of cuneiform writing dating from the period between 550 and 330 BCE. It has been an important trading post for centuries, controlled by the Portuguese Empire in the 16th to 17th centuries, and was part of the Dutch colonial empire in the 18th century. It was first developed into an oil terminal in the 1960s under the Shah, in partnership with American oil company Amoco. Military installations on the island were bombed by the United States under Donald Trump during the Iran war in March 2026.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:47 UTC on Sunday, 15 March 2026.
For the full current version of the article, see Kharg Island on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm long-form Danielle.
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