Socotra

Socotra Governorate, Yemen

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Socotra is a remote Yemeni archipelago in the northwestern Indian Ocean, celebrated for extraordinarily high levels of endemic life and otherworldly landscapes that include the umbrella-shaped dragon’s blood trees and rugged limestone plateaus.

Lying roughly between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, the archipelago’s main island is about 132 km long and is geologically a continental fragment linked to the Somali Plate, which explains its long isolation and unique flora and fauna. Around a third of Socotra’s ~825 plant species are endemic, along with very high percentages of reptiles and land snails, which led UNESCO to designate Socotra a World Heritage Site in 2008.

Administratively the islands form Socotra Governorate of Yemen, comprising the main island plus smaller islands (Abd al-Kuri, Samhah and Darsa), with a small population concentrated in towns such as Hadibo and livelihoods based on fishing, pastoralism and limited tourism. The climate is generally arid to semi-desert with hotter lowlands and slightly wetter highlands in the Hajhir mountains, which create varied habitats and scenic hiking terrain prized by naturalists and adventurous visitors.