Strait of Hormuz: the numbers
Dimensions, coordinates and the figures people usually come looking for, with the ones that move year to year kept out.
Dimensions
The figures below are the stable ones. Anything that changes with traffic, politics or the season is on the current status page instead, with sources attached.
- Width at narrowest
- About 21 nautical miles, roughly 39 kilometres.
- Length
- Roughly 90 nautical miles from the Gulf of Oman to the Persian Gulf.
- Shipping lane width
- About 2 miles inbound and 2 miles outbound.
- Separation zone
- About 2 miles of water between the two lanes, used by neither.
- Approximate position
- 26.6 degrees north, 56.4 degrees east.
- Connects
- The Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, and onward to the Arabian Sea.
- Bordering states
- Iran to the north; Oman (Musandam) and the UAE to the south.
Why the width is misleading
Twenty-one miles sounds generous until you look at what uses it. The navigable water is the lane, not the channel, and a loaded very large crude carrier needs miles to stop and a wide arc to turn.
The channel also bends near its narrowest section, so course changes happen exactly where there is least room. How traffic is organised through it is the part that makes the passage work at all.
Depth
The shipping lanes are deep enough for the largest crude carriers in service, which is why the route works at all. Depths vary considerably across the strait and shoal sharply toward the islands and the Musandam shore, so charted depths matter far more than any single headline number.
Common questions
- How wide is the Strait of Hormuz at its narrowest point?
- About 21 nautical miles, or roughly 39 kilometres.
- How long is the Strait of Hormuz?
- Roughly 90 nautical miles between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
- What are the coordinates of the Strait of Hormuz?
- Approximately 26.6 degrees north, 56.4 degrees east.
- Which two seas does it connect?
- The Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and through the latter the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.