Laft () is a city in the Central District of

Qeshm County Qeshm County () is in Hormozgan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Qeshm. Qeshm is a free trade zone and has good potential for business. History After the 2016 National Census, the villages of Laft and Ramkan were elevated to ...

, Hormozgan province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. Laft is more than 2,000 years old. It is on

Qeshm Island Qeshm (Persian language: قشم) is an arrow-shaped Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz of the Persian Gulf (), measuring roughly 1,500 square kilometres (576 square miles) in surface area. Separated from the Iranian mainland by the Claren ...

in the

Straits of Hormuz The Strait of Hormuz ( ''Tangeh-ye Hormoz'' , ''Maḍīq Hurmuz'') is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most strategica ...

, to the southwest of

Bandar Abbas Bandar Abbas (, ) is a city in the Central District of Bandar Abbas County, Hormozgan province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. Bandar Abbas is a port on the southern coast of the country, on the Persian ...

Demographics

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, Laft's population was 3,899 in 765 households, when it was a village in Howmeh Rural District. The following census in 2011 counted 4,105 people in 952 households. At the time of the 2006 National Census, the village's population was 4,668 people in 1,216 households. Laft was elevated to the status of a city after the census.

Overview

Laft is surrounded by

Hara forests The Mangrove forests of Qeshm or Hara forests of Qeshm, are the mangrove forests on the southern coast of Iran, particularly on and near the island of Qeshm in the Persian Gulf. Dominated by the species '' Avicennia marina'', known locally as ...

(mangroves). The most obvious architectural features of the houses is their variously-sized windbreaks (windtowers). The people of Laft constructed them for making the inner space of the building cool in summer. The buildings of Laft are constructed close to each other, with winding and narrow alleys. Historical monuments in Laft include

Naderi Castle Naderi is a surname pupular in Afghanistan and Iran. Notable people with the surname include: * Sayed Mansur Naderi, political and religious leader in Afghanistan * Rawnaq Naderi, Afghan poet and scholar * Farkhunda Zahra Naderi, Afghan rights act ...

, a square-shaped castle with four towers; two rounded dome-like

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

s; a

burial ground A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many dead people are buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ) implies th ...

in which some of the inscriptions are dated to 1000 years ago; and the shrines of Seyed Hassan Mansor, Sheikh Tousi, and Sheikh AndarAbi. Behind the castle, in a crater, 366 ''Tala'' (Golden) wells were dug for gathering the rainwater, one for each day of the

leap year A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) compared to a common year. The 366th day (or 13th month) is added to keep t ...

in Iran. Some historians believe that these wells date from the time of the

Achaemenian The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

and

Sassanian The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

dynasties. At Laft harbor, there is a dock which is related to

Median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

, Achaemenian, and Sassanian dynasties. This dock is about 130 m long and the main seabed thick of about 7 m. The walls at the dock are about 3 m that are made up bevelled stones. Near Laft a 220 kV- powerline crosses Ghesm strait.

Sheikh Andar Abi Island

Across from Laft and Khamir harbors, there is a very small island which is named Sheikh AndarAbi. Some parts of this small island are covered with water at

high tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

. The distance between Laft harbor and Sheikh AndarAbi Island can be covered by a speedboat in less than 5 minutes. At the north margin of Sheikh AndarAbi Island, the surface of the land is lower than other parts of the island and there are many Hara trees. At the southeast margin of the island there is a famous dome which is popular as the Shrine of Sheikh AndarAbi or Qadamgah-e Sheikh (footprint of the Sheikh). At high tide seawater covers the majority of the Island. Nowadays, nobody lives there, and fishermen and sailors are still respecting this island.

Demographics

Population

Overview

Sheikh Andar Abi Island

See also

Notes

References

Further reading