A new tourist attraction

Galapagos of the Indian Ocean, it’s the world’s tenth richest island for endemic plant species. And the biggest island in the Middle East 125 kilometers in length and 45 kilometers across.

Now Russians have added history to the tourist map of the island.

Socotra is an archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean. The largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95 pc of the landmass of the archipelago.The island is very isolated and through the process of speciation, 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.Botanical field surveys led by the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants – part of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – indicate that 307 out of the 825 37 pc plant species on Socotra are endemic i.e. they are found nowhere else on Earth.One of the most striking of Socotras plants is the dragons blood tree Dracaena cinnabari, which is a strange-looking, umbrella-shaped tree. Its red sap was thought to be the dragons blood of the ancients, sought after as a medicine and a dye. (via Russian archaeologists discover ancient city in Socotra Island.)

Should pay a visit some time.