Persian Gulf at its narrowest, in the Strait of Hormuz. The waters are overall very shallow, with a maximum depth of and an average depth of . Countries with a coastline on the Persian Gulf are (clockwise, from the north): Iran; Oman's Musandam exclave; the United Arab Emirates; Saudi Arabia Qatar, on a peninsula off the Saudi coast; Bahrain, on an island; Kuwait; and Iraq in the northwest. Various small islands also lie within the Persian Gulf, some of which are the subject of territorial disputes between the states of the region. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the Persian Gulf's southern limit
Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia The Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia (nicknamed Lorimer) is a two-volume encyclopedia compiled by John Gordon Lorimer. The "Gazetteer" was published in secret by the British government in India in 1908 and 1915 and it served as a handbook for British diplomats in the Arabian Peninsula and Persia. The work was declassified in 1955 under the fifty-year rule, and was widely praised for its extensive coverage of the region's history and geography. It is considered to be "the most important single source of historical material on the