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Map of the Khuriya Muriya Islands

The Khuriya Muriya Islands or Kuria Muria Islands (Arabic: جزر خوريا موريا‎; transliterated: Juzur Khurīyā Murīyā or Khūryān Mūryān – in antiquity the islands were called the Zenobii Islands or Zenobiou Islands (Greek: Ζηνοβίου νησία; Latin: Zenobii Insulae) or Doliche (Greek: Δολίχη); Location: 17°30′N 56°00′E / 17.5°N 56°E / 17.5; 56Coordinates: 17°30′N 56°00′E / 17.5°N 56°E / 17.5; 56 are an external territory in the Khuriya Muriya Bay (the classical Latin: Sinus Sachalites, Greek: Σαχαλίτης κόλπος) of the Arabian Sea 40 km off the southeastern coast of the sultanate of Oman, consisting of five islands, forming part of the Shalim and the Hallaniyat Islands Province of the Governorate of Dhofar, with a total area of 73 km², notably (from west to east):

The islands are mentioned by several early writers. Ptolemy (vi. 7. § 47) numbers them as seven small islands lying in the Sinus Sachalites, towards (from India) the entrance of the "Persian Gulf" (likely the modern Gulf of Aden). (Cf. Arrian Per. M. Eryth. p. 19.)

In 1854 the hami (sultan) of Muscat (later Muscat and Oman, now Oman), ceded the islands to Britain and in 1868 they were attached to the Aden Settlement (in Yemen). As a British possession until 1967, they were first administered by the British Governor of Aden till 1953, next by the British High Commissioner there, and, from 1963, by the British Chief Political Resident of the Persian Gulf (based in Bahrain). On 30 November 1967, the British Ambassador to the United Nations, Lord Caradon announced that Britain had decided in accordance with the wishes of the local inhabitants that the islands would be returned to the Muscat and Oman sultanate instead of to South Yemen.^[1] Despite criticism from President Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi of the then newly established People's Republic of South Yemen, the transfer to Oman proceeded.^[2]

See also

• Al-Hallaniyah

References

• Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), p. 4.
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1856).

External links

• 1911 Britannica
• WorldStatesmen - Oman
• Hazlitt, Classical Gazetteer, "Zenobii ins."
• Hazlitt, Classical Gazetteer, "Doliche"
• Nautical Information (Sailing Directions)

From LoveToKnow 1911