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. But on March 7 – one week into the war on Iran – US air strikes targeted a critical desalination plant on the island. The island was deemed so strategically important that the rulers of Hormuz moved their entire court there in 1301 to escape Tartar attacks. By the 19th century, the British had established a naval base at Basidu (Bassadore), which remained a hub for the British Indian Navy until 1863. It wasn’t until 1935 that the British coaling station was finally abandoned at the request of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the then-shah of Iran.