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Khor Fakkan (or Khawr Fakkan) ((アラビア語:خورفكان)) is a town located along the Gulf of Oman on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The town, the second largest on the east coast after Fujairah, is set on the picturesque bay of Khor Fakkan, which means "Creek of Two Jaws". Khor Fakkan belongs to the emirate of Sharjah but is geographically surrounded by the emirate of Fujairah. It is the site of Khor Fakkan Container Terminal, the only natural deep-sea port in the region and one of the major container ports in the Emirates. ==History== Khor Fakkan has a long history of human settlement. There is evidence of the postholes from the wooden uprights of the traditional barasti huts known as ''arish'', such as at Tell Abraq which dates from the 3rd to 1st millienium BC.〔 Excavations by a team from the Sharjah Archaeological Museum have identified 34 graves and a settlement belonging to the early-mid 2nd millennium BC. These are clustered on rock outcrops overlooking the harbour. Around 1500, Duarte Barbosa described it as a village “around which are gardens and farms in plenty”. In 1580 the Venetian jeweler Gasparo Balbi noted "Chorf" in a list of places on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, which is considered by historians to indicate Khor Fakkan. The Portuguese built a fort at Khor Fakkan that was a ruin by 1666. The log book of the Dutch vessel the ''Meerkat'' mentions this fort and another one, describing "Gorfacan" as a place on a small bay, with about 200 small houses built from date branches, near the beach. It refers to a triangular Portuguese fortress on the northern side, in ruins, and a fortress on a hill on the southern side, also in ruins, without garrison or artillery. As well as date palms, the ''Meerkat''s log also mentions fig trees, melons, watermelons and myrrh. It notes several wells with "good and fresh water" used for irrigation. One reason suggested for the ruinous state of the forts is an invasion in 1623 of the Persian navy under the control of Omani Sheikh Muhammad Suhari. Suhari, facing a Portuguese counter-attack, withdrew to the Portuguese forts, including that of Khor Fakkan. When the Persians were expelled, the Portuguese commander Rui Freire urged the people of Khor Fakkan to remain loyal to the Portuguese crown and established a Portuguese customs office as well. In 1737, long after the Portuguese had been expelled from Arabia, the Persians again invaded Khor Fakkan, with some 5,000 men and 1,580 horses, with the help of the Dutch, during their intervention in the Omani civil war. In 1765 Khor Fakkan belonged to a sheikh of the Al Qasimi, Sharjah's ruling family, according to the German traveler Carsten Niebuhr. There is a map by the French cartographer Rigobert Bonne dating to about 1770 that shows the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf and includes Khor Fakkan. From 1903 to 1952 Khor Fakkan was part of the cleaved emirate of Sharjah Kalba. German submarine U-533 sunk about off the coast on 16 October 1943 during World War II. Divers found the wreck at a depth of in 2009.From 1965 to 1969, the enclave formed a separate post area and gave out stamps bearing the inscription Sharjah & Dependencies / Khor Fakkan. The modern Khor Fakkan Container Terminal was inaugurated in 1979, and is the only natural deep-sea port in the region, and one of the top ports in the Emirates for containers. The Dh 300 million ($ 81.75 million) project involved reclaiming some to increase the storage capacity and to facilitate large cranes, and deep quays to accommodate for major vessels over in length. As of 2004 it handled 1.6 million TEU's.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Khor Fakkan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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