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Nearchus's writing on Arakata is the first
known mention of Kish Island in antiquity. When Marco Polo visited the Imperial court
in China, he commented on the Emperor's wife's pearls, he was told that they
were from Kish. In the 1970s the
last Shah of Iran turned the island into a luxury resort for the international
elite complete with a Grand Casino (now known as the Shayan International Hotel) and an airport designed to handle the Concorde. After the Islamic Revolution, Kish Island became
a duty-free shopping center.
Kish island's strategic position served as a
way station and link for the ancient Assyrian and Elamite civilizations when their primitive
sailboats navigated from Susa through the Karoun river into the Persian Gulf
and along the southern coastline passing Kish, Qeshm and
