Būbiyān

Būbiyān, island of Kuwait, located at the head of the Persian Gulf. It is the largest of a group of eight islands situated just southwest of the mouth of the Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab, which divides Iraq and Iran. Like all of the group except Faylakah Island, about 8 miles (13 km) to the south, Būbiyān is uninhabited. Būbiyān is separated from the Kuwait mainland to the west by the narrow Al-Ṣabiyyah Channel. The island is about 25 miles (40 km) long and 15 miles (24 km) wide and covers an area of 333 square miles (863 square km). The topography of the island is flat and low; salt marshes run almost the entire length of its coast, and the northwestern coast is deeply indented swampland. There are a few intermittent wadis in the central part of the island. A storehouse was established in 1902 by the Ottoman Turks near Cape Al-Qayd, the easternmost point of the island, but was subsequently abandoned. Iraq, whose port Umm Qaṣr is located nearby on the Al-Zubayr Channel, has maintained a longstanding claim to Būbiyān.