Persian Gulf - Iran - page 434

A few hundred metres north of Laft, on the road to the car-ferry dock, is one of
Qeshm's many lenge-building yards . These traditional cargo boats are still used to carry
goods back and forth across the Gulf. Other yards are found along the north coast, most
notably around Peiposht, Zeinabi and Bandar-e Guran.

HARRA SEA FORESTايرد لگنج ارح
In the local dialect, harra is the word for grey mangrove, and this is the Persian Gulf's
largest mangrove forest. During spring, more than 150 species of migrating birds can be
found here, including the Great Egret and the Western Reef Heron. The finless porpoise,
humpback dolphin, common dolphin and endangered green turtle are also regularly spot-
ted.

Sea Forest Tours
(charge per boat US$18; 7am-sunset Sat-Thu, to noon Fri) From the village of Tabl,
south of Laft, local boatmen offer 40-minute tours of the sea forest in their motorised
dinghies. Note that operation times can change with the season. Each boat can take six
passengers.

BOAT TOUR

QESHM ISLAND GEOPARKمشق یسانش نیمز کراپ
In 2006 the 300-sq-km mountainous area on the western half of Qeshm Island was gazet-
ted as the Qeshm Island Geopark ( www.qeshmgeopark.org ) , Iran's first member of the
Unesco-listed Global Geopark Network (to be a member, parks must have a geological
heritage of international significance and must use that heritage to promote the sustainable
development of the local communities who live there). Whether you're driving through
this area or looking at it on a Google Earth image, the geological significance is easy to
see. Nature has carved steep-sided stone canyons, eroded flat-topped hills into sandy
dunes and dramatic organ-pipe ridgelines, and dug deep into the island to form caves in-
cluding Namakdan Cave (Khare Namaki), which at 6.8km is the longest known salt-cave
system on earth.
The park is operated by a small but extremely motivated team that works with the
Qeshm Free Zone Organization, Unesco, NGOs, ecotourism operators, Iranian naturalists
and the local community to preserve the island's unique geology and heritage. Its pro-
grams include a project to create employment and socialisation opportunities for local wo-
men (see the boxed text, Click here ) and the construction of a visitors centre at the en-
trance to Chahkooh Canyon , the most spectacular of the park's eight geosites. Here, you
can climb up to the intersection of two narrow vertical canyons and drink from a chah