World Island Info

Iran is creating a female-only island on one of the 102 islands of Oroumiyeh Lake (Lake Urmia) in the country’s northwest.

The island is intended to be a tourist destination, and all facilities will be staffed by women, in keeping with the Iranian government’s impulse to segregate the sexes.

Perhaps the Iranians would like to emulate a society recounted by Marco Polo: men and women supposedly lived on, respectively, Male Island and Female Island, and kept to themselves, except for three months of the year, when the men would come over to visit.

Tuva Online recently covered a very rare thing: a Siberian lake island with an ancient fortress.

Near Mongolia but on the Russian side of the border, the ruined Uigur fortress is called Por-Bazhyn, and is on an island in Lake Tere-Khol. The rectangular fortress is visible in satellite photos.