Socotra or
Soqotra (
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
سُقُطْرَى ;
) is a small
archipelagoAn archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago is directly derived from the Greek arkhon and pelagos...
of four islands in the
Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by South Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean...
off the coast of the
Horn of AfricaThe Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea, and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
some south of the
Arabian peninsulaThe Arabian Peninsula , Arabia, Arabistan, and the Arabian subcontinent is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia...
. It is very isolated, and through the process of
speciationSpeciation is the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. The biologist Orator F. Cook seems to have been the first to coin the term 'speciation' for the splitting of lineages or 'cladogenesis,' as opposed to 'anagenesis' or 'phyletic evolution' occurring within lineages...
, a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. It has been described as the most alien-looking place on Earth
http://atlasobscura.com/places/socotra-island.
Socotra is part of the
Republic of YemenYemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia...
. It has long been a part of the
'Adan GovernorateAdan is a governorate of Yemen, including the city of Aden. The ancient capital, the port city of Crater, was located here.Adan or Aden was under British rule in the period between 1839 to 1967. In 1967, after years of struggle, Aden and other Southern Governorates were able to gain independence...
, but in 2004 it became attached to the
Hadhramaut GovernorateHadhramaut or Hadramawt is a governorate of Yemen lying within the large historical region of Hadhramaut. It is Yemen's largest governorate....
, which is much closer to the island than 'Adan (although the closest governorate would be
Al MahrahAl Mahrah or Mahra is a governorate of Yemen in the southern Arabian Peninsula in the area of the former Mahra Sultanate. Its capital is Al Ghaydah.In addition to Arabic, Mehri, a Modern South Arabian language is spoken in Mahra....
).
Geography and climate
Socotra is one of the most isolated landforms on Earth of
continentA continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criterion, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents – they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
al origin (i.e., not of
volcanic3. Conduit
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Dike
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14. Crater
15...
origin). The archipelago was once part of the
supercontinentIn geology, a supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. The assembly of cratons and accreted terranes that form Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent today.-History:...
of
GondwanaGondwana , originally Gondwanaland, is the name given to a southern precursor-supercontinent. Its final joining occurred between ca. 570 and 510 Ma ago, joining East Gondwana to West Gondwana. It later separated from Laurasia 180- during the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent that existed about...
and detached during the
MioceneThe Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the...
, in the same set of rifting events that opened the
Gulf of AdenThe Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in the Horn of Africa...
to its northwest.
The archipelago consists of the main island of Socotra (3,625 km2), the three smaller islands of
Abd al KuriAbd al Kuri is an island between Socotra and Somalia. Like all islands of the Socotra Archipelago, it belongs to Yemen, specifically to the Hadhramaut Governorate...
,
SamhahSamhah is an inhabited island of the Socotra archipelago, between the main island of Socotra, and Somalia. Like the whole group, it belongs to Yemen, specifically to Hadhramaut Governorate. It measures 40 km² in area, making it the smallest of the three inhabited islands of the group, after the...
, and Darsa, and small rock outcrops like Ka’l Fir’awn and Sābūnīyah that are uninhabitable by humans but important for birds.
The main island has three geographical terrains: the narrow coastal
plainIn geography, a plain is a land with relatively high relief, as well as flat. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or vegetation may be...
s, a
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
plateauIn geology and earth science, a plateau, also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain...
permeated with
karstKilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after a Yugoslavian geologist Karst. It will consist of about 30 individual...
ic caves, and the Haghier Mountains. The mountains rise to . The island is a little over long east to west and typically north to south.
The climate is generally tropical
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives almost no precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system,...
, with rainfall being light, seasonal (winter) and more abundant at the higher ground in the interior than along the coastal lowlands. The
monsoonA pennis is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by seasonal changes in precipitation, but now is used to describe seasonal changes atmospheric circulation and precipitation The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the African and Asia-Australian monsoons...
season brings strong winds and high seas.
Flora and fauna
Socotra is considered the "jewel" of biodiversity in the
Arabian seaThe Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui, the north-east point of Somalia, Socotra, Kanyakumari in India, and the western coast...
.
The long geological isolation of the Socotra archipelago and its fierce heat and drought have combined to create a unique and spectacular
endemicEndemism is the ecological state of being unique to a particular geographic location, such as a specific island, habitat type, nation, or other defined zone. To be endemic to a place or area means that it is found only in that part of the world and nowhere else. For example, many species of lemur...
floraIn botany, flora has two meanings. The first meaning, flora of an area or of time period, refers to all plant life occurring in an area or time period, especially the naturally occurring or indigenous plant life...
(which may, therefore, be vulnerable to
introduced speciesAn introduced, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its native distributional range, which has arrived there by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
such as goats). Surveys have revealed that more than a third of the 800 or so plant species of Socotra are found nowhere else. Botanists rank the flora of Socotra among the ten most endangered island flora in the world. The archipelago is a site of global importance for biodiversity conservation and a possible center for
ecotourismEcotourism is travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and small scale. It helps educate the traveler; provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for...
.
One of the most striking of Socotra's plants is the dragon's blood tree (
Dracaena cinnabariDracaena cinnabari is a Dragon Tree native to the Socotra archipelago. It is also referred to as the Dragon Blood Tree and Socotra Dragon Tree. It was first formally described by Isaac Bayley Balfour in 1882. A miniature Icon of this tree is in Windows as Network-Icon....
), which is a strange-looking, umbrella-shaped tree. Its red sap was the
dragon's bloodDragon's blood is a bright red resin that is obtained from different species of a number of distinct plant genera: Croton, Dracaena, Daemonorops, Calamus rotang and Pterocarpus. The red resin was used in ancient times as varnish, medicine, incense, and dye...
of the ancients, sought after as a medicine and a dye. Another unusual plant is
Dorstenia gigas.
The island group also has a fairly rich bird fauna, including a few types of endemic birds, such as the
Socotra StarlingThe Socotra Starling is a species of starling in the Sturnidae family.It is endemic to Yemen.Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland, and...
Onychognathus frater, the
Socotra SunbirdThe Socotra Sunbird is a species of bird in the Nectariniidae family.It is endemic to Yemen.Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, and subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland.It is threatened by habitat loss.-References:*...
Nectarinia balfouri,
Socotra SparrowThe Socotra Sparrow is found on the islands of Socotra and Abd al Kuri in the Indian Ocean, off the Horn of Africa. It likes dry areas and towns....
Passer insularis, and
Socotra GrosbeakThe Socotra Grosbeak or Socotra Golden-winged Grosbeak is a finch endemic to Socotra, an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Yemen. R. socotranus is by some authorities held to be the only species of the then-monotypic genus Rhynchostruthus, including all other golden-winged grosbeaks...
Rhynchostruthus socotranus.
As with many isolated island systems,
batBats are flying mammals in the order Chiroptera . The forelimbs of bats are webbed and developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos, glide rather than...
s are the only mammals native to Socotra. In contrast, the marine biodiversity around Socotra is rich, characterized by a unique mixture of species that have originated in farflung biogeographic regions: the western Indian Ocean, the
Red SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez,...
, Arabia, East Africa, and the wider Indo-Pacific.
UNESCO recognition
The island was recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a world natural heritage site in July 2008. The
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
has supported such a move, calling on both UNESCO and International Organization of Protecting Environment to classify the island archipelago among the environmental heritages.
People and economy
The inhabitants are of
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
,
SomaliSomalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic language family...
, and
South AsianThe ethno-linguistic composition of the population of South Asia, that is the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka is highly diverse. The majority of the population fall within two large groups, Indo-European and Dravidian. These groups are further...
origins. They follow the Islamic faith, and speak Soqotri, a Semitic language. Their primary occupation has been fishing, livestock rearing and date cultivation. Almost all inhabitants of Socotra, numbered at 50,000, live on the main island. The principal city is
HadibohHadiboh is a coastal town in northern Socotra , not far from the mount Dschabal al-Dschahir. It is the central and largest city of the small archipelago, with a population 8,545 as of 2004 census of population. Hadiboh is also the capital of the larger eastern district of Socotra's two...
(population 8,545 at the
censusA "census" is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
of 2004). The second largest town is Qulansiyah, with a population of 3,862, followed by Qād̨ub, population 929. Those three main towns are all located on the north coast. 'Abd-al-Kūrī and Samha have a population of a few hundred people between them; Darsa and the remaining islands are uninhabited.
The archipelago forms two
districts||The governorates of Yemen are divided into 333 districts . The districts are subdivided into 2,210 sub-districts, and then into 38,284 villages...
of the
Hadhramaut GovernorateHadhramaut or Hadramawt is a governorate of Yemen lying within the large historical region of Hadhramaut. It is Yemen's largest governorate....
:
- Hidaybū (حديبو), capital H̨adībū
Hadiboh is a coastal town in northern Socotra , not far from the mount Dschabal al-Dschahir. It is the central and largest city of the small archipelago, with a population 8,545 as of 2004 census of population. Hadiboh is also the capital of the larger eastern district of Socotra's two...
, consisting of about the eastern two thirds of the main island of Socotra, with a population of 32,285
- Qulansiyah wa 'Abd-al-Kūrī (قلنسيه وعبد الكوري), capital Qulansiyah, consisting of the western third of the main island, and the minor islands, specifically 'Abd-al-Kūrī, with a population of 10,557
Traditionally, the archipelago has been inaccessible from June to September due to monsoon weather. However, in July 1999 a new airport opened Socotra to the outside year round, with
YemeniaYemenia - Yemen Airways is the national airline of Yemen, based in Sana'a. It operates scheduled domestic services as well as international services to more than 30 destinations in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia...
providing flights once a week to
AdenAden is a city in Yemen, 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb.Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a low isthmus. This harbour, Front Bay, was first used by the ancient Kingdom of Awsan between the 5th and...
and Sanaa. Socotra Island Airport is located about 12 km west of the main city, H̨adībū, and close to the third largest city, Qād̨ub. Its ICAO code is
OYSQ. Electricity is widely available in Socotra with installations of diesel generators, but in
HadibohHadiboh is a coastal town in northern Socotra , not far from the mount Dschabal al-Dschahir. It is the central and largest city of the small archipelago, with a population 8,545 as of 2004 census of population. Hadiboh is also the capital of the larger eastern district of Socotra's two...
there is no electricity from 5am until 9am daily. There are two excellent paved roads: one along the north shore from Quelensiyah to Hadiboh and then to DiHamri area, and another from the north coast to the south coast through the Dixsam plateau. There is neither public transport nor taxis available on Socotra island, but rent-a-car service is available. The former capital is located to the east of Hadiboh. On the western end of Hadiboh lies a small Yemeni army barracks. The President of Yemen,
Ali Abdullah SalehField Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh , born March 21, 1942, is the current President of Yemen. He was President of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1978 to 1990 and became president of the newly united Republic of Yemen in 1990....
, has a residence there as well.
The
SemiticIn linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages....
language
SoqotriSoqotri is the language of the native population of the island of Socotra, and Abd-el-Kuri and Samhah islands of the Socotra archipelago off the southern coast of Republic of Yemen. It is one of the Modern South Arabian languages and is usually classified as a South Semitic language...
is spoken only in Socotra, although it is related to other Modern South Arabian languages on the Arabian mainland such as
MehriMehri or Mahri is a Modern South Arabian language, a branch of the greater Semitic language family, and is spoken by minority populations in isolated areas of the eastern part of Yemen and western Oman. It is a remnant of the ancient indigenous language group spoken in the southern Arabian...
.
Some residents raise cattle and goats. The chief export products of the island are
datesPhoenix dactylifera , commonly known as the Date Palm, is a palm in the genus Phoenix, extensively cultivated for its edible sweet fruit...
,
gheeGhee is a class of clarified butter that originated in South Asia, and is commonly used in South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine .-Preparation:Ghee is made by simmering unsalted...
,
tobaccoTobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines. In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or...
, and
fishA fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins...
.
At the end of the 1990s, a United Nations Development Program was launched with the aim of providing a close survey of the island of Socotra.
Transport
There is no public transport, but car rental is available.
Socotra AirportSocotra Airport is an airport in Socotra, Yemen . It is the only commercial airport that serves the Yemeni island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea and its capital town of Hadibo...
has nearly daily flights connecting the island with Yemeni mainland.
History
Socotra appears as
Dioskouridou ("of the Dioscurides") in the
Periplus of the Erythraean SeaThe Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a Greek periplus, describing navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along Northeast Africa and India...
, a 1st century A.D. Greek navigation aid. In the notes to his translation of the
Periplus, G.W.B. Huntingford remarks that the name
Socotra is not Greek in origin, but derives from the
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
dvipa sukhadhara ("island of bliss").
A local tradition holds that the inhabitants were converted to
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
by Thomas in AD 52. In the 10th century, the Arab geographer Abu Mohammed Al-Hassan Al-Hamdani stated that in his time most of the inhabitants were Christians. Socotra is also mentioned in
The Travels of Marco PoloThe Travels of Marco Polo is the usual English title of Marco Polo's travel book, nicknamed Il Milione or Le Livre des Merveilles...
according to which "the inhabitants are baptized Christians and have an archbishop" who, it is further explained, "has nothing to do with the Pope at Rome, but is subject to an archbishop who lives at Baghdad". They were Nestorians but they also practiced ancient magic rituals despite the warnings of their archbishop.
In 1507, the fleet of
Tristão da CunhaTristão da Cunha Tristão da Cunha Tristão da Cunha (sometimes spelled Tristão d'Acunha; ; (Portugal c. 1460 – c. 1540) was a Portuguese explorer and naval commander. In 1514 he served as ambassador from king Manuel I of Portugal to Pope Leo X leading a luxurious embassy presenting in Rome...
with
Afonso de AlbuquerqueAfonso de Albuquerque was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, a naval general officer whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian ocean...
landed an occupying force at the then capital of Suq, searching a
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
base to stop the Red Sea commerce to the Indian sea, and to liberate the assumed friendly Christians from Arab Islamic rule. Here they started to build a fortress. However, they were not welcomed as enthusiastically as they had expected and abandoned the island four years later.
The islands passed under the control of the
MahraThe Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra or sometimes the Mahra Sultanate of Ghayda and Socotra was a sultanate that included both the historical region of Mahra and the Indian Ocean island of Socotra in what is now eastern Yemen...
sultans in 1511. Later, in 1886 it became a British protectorate, along with the remainder of the Mahra State of Qishn and Socotra. For the British it was an important strategic stop-over. The
P&OThe Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, was a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...
ship
Aden sank after being wrecked on a reef near Socotra, in 1897, with the loss of 78 lives.
In October 1967, the Mahra sultanate was abolished. On 30 November 1967, Socotra became part of the People's Republic of South Yemen (later to become the
People's Democratic Republic of YemenThe People's Democratic Republic of Yemen — also referred to as Democratic Yemen, South Yemen, or Yemen — was a socialist republic in the present-day southern and eastern Provinces of Yemen...
). Today it is part of the Republic of
YemenYemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia...
.
External links