Hormoz Island has an area of 42 km2 (16 sq mi). It is covered by sedimentary rock and layers of volcanic material on its surface. The highest point of the island is about 186 metres above sea level. Due to a lack of precipitation, the soil and water are salty.
In the 15th century Hormuz was visited several times by a Chinese fleet led by Zheng He
The island was conquered by the Portuguese explorer Afonso de Albuquerque in the Capture of Ormuz (1507) and became a part of the Portuguese Empire. There is a historic Portuguese fortress on Hormuz Island, the Fort of Our Lady of the Conception. The island was then captured by a combined Anglo-Persian force in 1622 in the Capture of Ormuz (1622).
Shah Abbas I was not interested to maintain the island as a trading center and developped the nearby mainland port of Bander Abbas instead. The city went into decline. Many of its inhabitants spent part of the year at fields and ochards around the old Hormuz on the mainland, only fishermen being in permanent residence. The island continued to export small qantities of rock salt and lumps of iron oxide which were used as ballast stones for sailing ships.
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