Umm Qasr Port
| Umm Qasr Port | |
|---|---|
Cranes at Umm Qasr await cargo
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| Location | |
| Country | Iraq |
| Location | Umm Qasr, Basra, Iraq |
| Coordinates | 30°03′12″N 47°56′15″E / 30.05335°N 47.93756°ECoordinates: 30°03′12″N 47°56′15″E / 30.05335°N 47.93756°E |
| Details | |
| Owned by | Iraqi Government |
Umm Qasr Port is Iraq's only deep water port, part of the city of Umm Qasr.
Iraq's second port in scale of size and goods shipped to the port of Basra, it is strategically important, located on the western edge of the al-Faw peninsula, where the mouth of the Shatt al Arab waterway enters the Persian Gulf. It is separated from the border of Kuwait by a small inlet. Prior to the Persian Gulf War, traffic between Kuwait and Iraq flowed over a bridge.
Umm Qasr was originally a small fishing town, but was said to have been the site of Alexander the Great's landing in Mesopotamia in 325 BC. During the Second World War a temporary port was established there by the Allies to unload supplies to dispatch to the Soviet Union. It fell back into obscurity after the war, but the government of King Faisal II sought to establish a permanent port there in the 1950s.
In 1958 after the coup d'etat of the Iraqi Army known as the 14 July Revolution, the Iraqi Navy established a base there. The new regime of General Abdul-Karim Qassem undertook mass planning of the economy of Iraq, based on oil export and factory based production, which required new shipping facilities. Founded in 1961, it was intended to serve as Iraq's only "deep water" port, reducing the country's dependence on the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway that marks the border with Iran. The port facilities were built by a consortium of companies from West Germany, Sweden and Lebanon, with Iraqi Republic Railways services connecting it to Basra and Baghdad. The port opened for business in July 1967.
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Wikipedia