Strait of Hormuz

pWotD Episode 3236: Strait of Hormuz Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 123,135 views on Thursday, 12 March 2026 our article of the day is Strait of Hormuz.The Strait of Hormuz ( Persian: تنگهٔ هرمز, romanized: Tange-ye Hormoz , Arabic: مَضيق هُرمُز, romanized: Maḍīq Hurmuz) is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most strategically important choke points. It has been so for centuries, with vast hinterlands rich in luxury trade goods, but no easy access to lucrative trading ports. In his memoirs, Babur, the first padishah of the Mughal Empire, recounted how almonds had to be carried from the distant Ferghana region in Central Asia to Hormuz to reach markets.On the north coast lies Iran, and on the south coast lies the Musandam Peninsula, shared by the United Arab Emirates and the Musandam Governorate, an exclave of Oman. The strait is about 104 miles (90 nmi; 167 km) long, with a width varying from about 60 mi (52 nmi; 97 km) to 24 mi (21 nmi; 39 km).During 2023–2025, 20% of the world's liquefied natural gas (LNG) and 25% of seaborne oil trade passed through the strait annually. The strait had never been closed for extended time during Middle East conflicts (unlike the Straits of Tiran/Bab-el-Mandeb) though Iran occasionally had threatened to close the strait, and preparations to mine it have been undertaken.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 03:46 UTC on Friday, 13 March 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Strait of Hormuz on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @[email protected] check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Emma.