Qeshm Island and the Straits of Hormuz

The Straits of Hormuz is dotted with islands. The largest is Qeshm. Is it expected that if the U.S. is going to conduct land operations against Iran it will either be at Kharg, Isfaran or at Qeshm and possibly Hormuz Island and other islands in the Strait.

The Straits of Hormuz is 104 miles long (167 kilometers) with a width that varies from 24 mils 929 kilometers) to 60 miles (97 kilometers). It is bordered in the north by Iran and in the south by the UAE and Oman (Musandam Peninsula).  

Qeshm is by far the largest island in the strait. While there is a considerable doubt about the value of occupying this island, it has certainly been discussed. 

 

The island itself is 576 square miles (1,500 square kilometers). In comparison, Fairfax Country VA is 406 square miles (1,050 square kilometers). The country of Bahrain is 304 square miles (787 square kilometers). It is 84 miles long (135 kilometers) and between 5.8 (9.4 kilometers) and 25 miles (40 kilometers) wide. It is within 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) of the Iranian mainland. There is no bridge connecting the island to the mainland. 

The island as of 2016 has a population of 148,993 in at least 59 villages and towns. The largest town is Qeshm (40,678).  The existence of this large population would create complications for any U.S. ground operations.

It did have an earthquake just off shore in 2005 of Magnitude 6.0 that killed 13.

In 1622 English navigator William Baffin (of Baffin Bay and Baffin Island) was mortally wounded there fighting the Portuguese. One English bible editor has posited that this was where the Garden of Edin was located. It is pretty dry now.

A few interesting links: Inside Qeshm, Iran’s underground missile fortress and geological marvel | US-Israel war on Iran | Al Jazeera and Qeshm Island.

Another island in the strait is Hormuz Island. It is much smaller, being 16 square miles (42 square kilometers) and 610 feet (186 meters) in height. It is 5 miles (8 kilometers) off the Iranian coast and within sight of Qeshm. It has a population of around 6,000. This 2025 travel video is worth watching: 10 BEST Things to do on Hormuz Island in Iran 🇮🇷

Anyhow, for a variety of reasons, I do not think the U.S. is going to do ground operations at Qeshm or Hormuz Island, but one never knows.

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Christopher A. Lawrence
Christopher A. Lawrence

Christopher A. Lawrence is a professional historian and military analyst. He is the Executive Director and President of The Dupuy Institute, an organization dedicated to scholarly research and objective analysis of historical data related to armed conflict and the resolution of armed conflict. The Dupuy Institute provides independent, historically-based analyses of lessons learned from modern military experience.
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Mr. Lawrence was the program manager for the Ardennes Campaign Simulation Data Base, the Kursk Data Base, the Modern Insurgency Spread Sheets and for a number of other smaller combat data bases. He has participated in casualty estimation studies (including estimates for Bosnia and Iraq) and studies of air campaign modeling, enemy prisoner of war capture rates, medium weight armor, urban warfare, situational awareness, counterinsurgency and other subjects for the U.S. Army, the Defense Department, the Joint Staff and the U.S. Air Force. He has also directed a number of studies related to the military impact of banning antipersonnel mines for the Joint Staff, Los Alamos National Laboratories and the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation.
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His published works include papers and monographs for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation, in addition to over 40 articles written for limited-distribution newsletters and over 60 analytical reports prepared for the Defense Department. He is the author of Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka (Aberdeen Books, Sheridan, CO., 2015), America’s Modern Wars: Understanding Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam (Casemate Publishers, Philadelphia & Oxford, 2015), War by Numbers: Understanding Conventional Combat (Potomac Books, Lincoln, NE., 2017) , The Battle of Prokhorovka (Stackpole Books, Guilford, CT., 2019), The Battle for Kyiv (Frontline Books, Yorkshire, UK, 2023), Aces at Kursk (Air World, Yorkshire, UK, 2024), Hunting Falcon: The Story of WWI German Ace Hans-Joachim Buddecke (Air World, Yorkshire, UK, 2024) and The Siege of Mariupol (Frontline Books, Yorkshire, UK, 2024).
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Mr. Lawrence lives in northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C., with his wife and son.

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