or Hormuz, a small island at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, near its northern shore; N. Lat. 27° 5', E. Long. 56° 29'. It is about 10 miles distant from the continent, a rugged, bare, and sterile rock, without any vegetation, and about 12 miles in circumference. It has several high peaks covered with a transparent ice-like incrustation of salt. Other parts of the island consist of soil of a dark red colour produced by the oxide of iron, with which the whole is impregnated; while other portions are yellow with sulphur, or grey with copper. The shape and geological structure of the peaks seem to indicate that it is of volcanic formation. Of the town on the northern side, which once contained about 40,000 inhabitants, nothing now remains but a mass of scattered ruins; among which the remains of aqueducts and walls still attest its former greatness. There is, however, a good harbour and a fort, which stands on a promontory separated from the island by a moat. Ormuz was taken possession of by the Portuguese in 1507; and was made by them an emporium for the trade of India and the East. It thus became a place of deposit for the valuable products of India, the jewels of Bokhara, and the manufactured goods of Europe and Asia. The town speedily rose, and the island attained to great importance under the Portuguese sway. It is to this period of its prosperity that Milton refers, when he speaks of the wealth of Ormuz in these lines:

"High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind; Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat."—Paradise Lost, b. ii.

It was taken from the Portuguese, and the town was demolished, in 1622, by Shah Abbas, King of Persia, assisted by a British squadron of ships. On the introduction of the Mohammedan religion into Persia, the disciples of Zoroaster took refuge in the rocky caves of Ormuz; whence they emigrated to Bombay, and now form the people called Parses. The island still belongs to Persia; but it is rented by the Imam of Muscat, who keeps a small force here to defend the fort and harbour. There are no springs of fresh water in the island, which is supplied by rain water caught in reservoirs made by the Portuguese.