The occasion commemorates the exit of colonial and foreign forces from the strategic waterway.

Tenth of Ordibehesht month (April 30) in the Iranian calendar marks the anniversary of Shah Abbas I of Persia’s successful military campaign when the Portuguese navy was forced out of the Strait of Hormuz in the Capture of Ormuz (1622), Tehran Times reported.

In 1622, Safavid soldiers united to defeat the Portuguese, one of the supreme powers of the time. The Portuguese had invaded the Persian Gulf and occupied it for more than a century until then.

Accordingly, the 10th of Ordibehesht or April 30 has been called the National Day of Persian Gulf since then and is celebrated annually.

While there is strong evidence that the gulf originally belongs to Iran, it seems that the countries in the neighborhood have recently claimed the gulf for their own interest. If research is conducted carefully through the ancient inscriptions and early written works, it can be clearly investigated that Iran or Persia is the true owner of the gulf.

The Persian Gulf is of extreme importance to Iran from two respects; firstly, its bed is a great source of oil for Iran. Secondly, regarding the tourism industry, this gulf has a lot to offer to Iranian and non-Iranian tourists. The best time to consider visiting the Persian Gulf is from late December to mid-April when the humidity does not cause so much irritation. The Persian Gulf coastline has a lot of beauties and wonders.

Hormuz Island, for instance, has stunning red shores. Moreover, Mangrove Forest of Qeshm is a mysterious forest in the gulf with green plants disappearing and reappearing due to high and low tides. In addition, there are shiny silver planktons in some parts of the gulf shore that give perfect scenery to the shores of the region at night.

Apart from this, the marine species and corals in the gulf are amazingly diverse and interesting. Naughty dolphins, above all, are a great source of entertainment. Water sports and activities of all sorts are also available in different islands, cities, and ports.

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In three separate posts in three languages on his Twitter account early on Sunday, Mousavi took a swipe at the French president for using a fake name for the Persian Gulf.

“I remind Monsieur Macron that the gulf located south of Iran has only one name and that is the #PersianGulf. Your military presence in the Persian Gulf is as wrong as your naming it. Both mistakes are huge but compensable,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said, as he posted the same tweet in Persian and French as well.

His reaction came after Macron said in a tweet that France had deployed the Jaguar Task Force mission to “the Arabian Peninsula and in the Arab-Persian Gulf,” claiming that the military buildup was meant to strengthen maritime security in the strategic region.

The name of the body of water separating the Iranian plateau from the Arabian Peninsula is historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf named after the land of Persia or Iran. For years some Arab States have disputed historical and legal evidence of the name of the Persian Gulf.

More than 20% of the world’s oil and 35% of oil traded by sea passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making the Persian Gulf region one of the most highly important strategic places in the world for international trade. In addition, the three Persian Gulf Islands of the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Mussa are also located here and are part of Iran’s sovereignty.

For thousands of years, world maps from ancient times dating as far as 500 B.C. to the present have all been referring to this body of water as the Persian Gulf.

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Some Iranian archaeologists suggest that the carving was created by a follower of Mithraism as it depicts a simple portrayal of a human with his right hand raised and an object in his hand. But, experts say it needs much more study in order to date the petroglyph.

The petroglyph was found in western Kermanshah province on a mountainside near Taq-e Bostan, an archaeological complex, which consists of a series of properties from prehistoric to historical periods such as imposing Sassanid-era bas-reliefs, Morad-Hassel Tepe, an ancient village, a Parthian graveyard and a Sassanid hunting ground.

It was found upstream of a spring, inside a niche measuring about two meters by two meters, carved some 50 centimeters deep into the mountainside, archaeologist Keyvan Moumivand told IRNA on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a local tourism official has said that various archaeologists and teams of experts must conduct researches on the rock-carving in order to determine its origins and to make a definitive comment on it.

Some experts say that existence of some Mithraism symbols in parts of the historical zone, including one nearby the bas-relief of Ardashir II, reinforces a possibility that the petroglyph being associated with Mithraism, IRNA reported.

Mithraism, was the worship of Mithra, an Iranian god of the sun, justice, contract, and war in pre-Zoroastrian Iran. Known as Mithras in the Roman Empire during the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, this deity, according to Britannica Encyclopedia, was honored as the patron of loyalty to the emperor. After the acceptance of Christianity by the emperor Constantine in the early 4th century, Mithraism rapidly declined.

Taq-e Bostan is known for its bas-reliefs of Sasanid origin (3rd to 7th century CE). The carvings, some of the finest and best-preserved examples of Persian sculpture under the Sasanians, include representations of the investitures of Ardashir II (reigned 379–383 CE) and of Shapur III (383–388), the latter in a man-made cave carved in the form of an iwan (three-sided, barrel-vaulted hall, open at one end).

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