Socotra Island

One of my students found this and sent it to me…it is of an island that is known to be the most alien-looking place on Earth.

Socotra is a small Yemeni archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean. Although part of Yemen, it looks like it’s on a completely different planet!

It is an isolated archipelago where the approx 50,000 inhabitants are mainly Arab, Somali and South Asian origin. They are predominantly Muslims and have their own local language called Soqotri.

50,000 may seem like quite a lot people, but up till 1999 there were no airports there…and it was not until 2006, when UNESCO named it a World Natural Heritage Site, that 2 main roads were built. Now there is one that runs along the north shore from Quelensiyah to DiHamri area (2 different districts) and another from Socotra’s northern to the southern coast.

It is good that UNESCO recognizes the importance of preserving the island as there are about 825 extremely rare species of flora and fauna on Socotra Island…where 37% of them are endemic! This means that there are about 307 plant species that can be found nowhere else on Earth!

The island has some very very strange looking plants like the Dragon’s Blood Tree (where its red sap made people in ancient times think that it was the real dragon’s blood!), Desert Rose and the Socotran Fig Tree. The unique and impressive endemic range of flora and fauna is apparently created due to the harsh weather, drought, intense heat…combined with the process of speciation. Being an isolated island, some of flora and fauna have actually been preserved for about 20 million years!

Even the wildlife there is unique. They have 140 different species of birds, 10 of which are also endemic.

The name Socotra is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘dvipa sukhadhara’, which means ‘Island of Bliss’. Everything there looks so untouched and so untainted….it’s beautiful. There are white and sandy beaches that seem to run for miles, mountains that rise to 5,000 feet and limestone plateaus which are full of caves. Those caves can be up to 7km in length and are commonly filled with huge stalagmites and stalactites.

Do take a look at the photos below and be prepared to be shocked…and no, it’s not from a Star Wars movie set hehe

Tsem Rinpoche

The Dragon’s Blood Tree!

One of the few roads on the island!

The Desert Rose

The Socotran Fig Tree

The houses that the people of Socratra live in…incredible!

I don’t own any of the content of these images. All content is owned by jan_vandorpe at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jan_vandorpe, Fun On The Net at http://www.funonthenet.in and Panoramio at http://www.panoramio.com.

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