Socotra Socotra or is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean, off the Horn of Africa, 250 km east of Cape Guardafui, 350 km southeastern coast of Yemen, country to which despite its proximity to Somalia, which until the creation of the Republic of South Yemen in 1969, Socotra administered on behalf of the Sultanate of Mahra and Socotra and the Sultanate of Qishn. Socotra currently belongs to Yemeni Hadramawt province.
Socotra is one of the world's most exotic islands. Since ten million years ago, be torn Horn of Africa, it is as if time did not count, keeping an eternal isolation with its continental neighbors.
The evolution of plants and animals has had a particular development, its strange trees remind flora described by Jules Verne in Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Socotra Island is 130 kilometers long across and 35 kilometers wide, with tropical climate.
The most striking plant formation of the island found in the cliffs at the foot of the mountains. The vegetation here is dominated visually by cucumber tree, Dendrosicyos socotrana, a subclass of the desert rose, Adenium obesum subsp . socotranum and Euphorbia arbuscula.
Higher up in the mountains overlooking the leash Socotra or tree of the dragon's blood (Dracaena cinnabari) with a umbrella-shaped crown. Resin, Dragon's blood is used as a dye since ancient times. Also found in the archipelago Dorstenia gigas, a Moraceae pachycaule.
When Alexander the Great gave the order to conquer them, they were a living fossil. Today, this unreal place, the highest biological endemism Middle East, fascinated zoologists and botanists.
The Socotra islands can also be seen another type of natural environments, and a good example of this is the Bedhula dunes.
The island was proclaimed a natural heritage of humanity by UNESCO in July 2008, and since then have joined efforts of the European Union and the International Organization of Environmental Protection to preserve the private wealth of Socotra.
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