Bushehr

Bushehr is the capital city of Bushehr Province, on the shores of the Persian Gulf, south of Iran.

Bushehr lies in a vast plain running along the coastal region on the Persian Gulf coast of south-western Iran. It is built near the ancient port city of Rishahr.

Bushehr was the main trade centre of Iran in the past centuries. The city structures are traditional in style, modest in proportion and cost. It was the chief seaport of the country, but due to its lack of rail connection to the interior of the country and its shallow anchorage, it has lost its position as the primary port of Iran.

During the Sassanian era, the name of the city was Ram Ardashir and later become Reyshahr, eventually, this turned in to Bushehr, which is the current name of the city.

To the south of the present city, at Reeshire, are the remains of an earlier Elamite (c 3000 BCE) settlement. During the Greek Macedonian Seleucid dynasty, the city was refounded as Antiochia in Persis by Seleucus Nicator. A few decades later the city was rebuilt by Seleucus’s son Antiochus who transferred their colonists from Magnesia. Also, the Seleucid king Antiochus stayed there for a while in 205 B.C. after his campaign to the eastern provinces (212 -205 B.C.). Antiochia remained under Greek Seleucid rule until circa 170 B.C. It was one of the most important ports of the Sasanian navy and was named after the first king of this dynasty, Ardashir I.

In the 5th century AD, Bushehr was the seat of the Nestorian Christian expansion into southern Iran.

In 1737 the Dutch East India Company opened a trading post in Bushehr, which lasted until 1753.

In 1763 the Arab governor of Bushehr Sheikh Nasr Al-Madhkur granted the British East India Company the right to build a base and trading post there. It was used as a base by the British Royal Navy in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, Bushehr became an important commercial port. It was occupied by British forces in 1856, during the Anglo-Persian War 1856–1857. Bushehr surrendered to the British on 9 December 1856.

It was occupied by the British again in 1915, this time due to the German Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition including Wilhelm Wassmuss.