Beneath the labyrinthine salt caves and emerald mangrove forests of Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a different kind of architecture lies buried.While tourists once flocked to this “open-air geological museum” to get a glimpse of its surreal rock formations, the world’s gaze is now fixed on what lies beneath the coral: Iran’s “underground missile cities”.As the United States-Israel war on Iran has erupted, Qeshm has transitioned from a free-trade and tourists’ paradise to a front-line fortress – and the ultimate strategic prize for US Marines currently being deployed to the strait. Its sheer size – approximately 1,445 square kilometres (558 square miles) – allows it to physically dominate the entrance to the strait from the Gulf, acting as a cork in the world’s most vital energy transit passage.These days, the island’s 148,000 residents – primarily Sunni Muslims who speak the unique Bandari dialect – live at the intersection of this ancient natural beauty and modern military tensions. Their lives are still dictated by the sea, which is celebrated every year during the “Nowruz Sayyadi” (Fisherman’s New Year), when all fishing stops to honour the ocean’s bounty.But on March 7 – one week into the war on Iran – US air strikes targeted a critical desalination plant on the island. The strike, which Tehran branded a “flagrant crime” against ci …
