14. Commonly called “the most alien-looking place on Earth”, the island of Socotra is home to one of the most unique displays of animal and plant life on Earth
Socotra, also known as Soqotra, is the largest of the four islands of the eponymous archipelago located between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea. A possession of Yemen, the isolated island of Socotra resides approximately 240 kilometers off the eastern coast of Cape Guardafui and 380 kilometers south of the Arabian Peninsula. As a result of this vast separation of Socotra from the mainland, the island is home to an extremely high number of endemic species – those unique to a particular geographical area – with potentially more than one-third of Socotra’s plant life regarded as such.
In the 1990s, the United Nations conducted a biodiversity study of Socotra, identifying almost seven hundred endemic species – a figure surpassed by only four other islands in the world. Among these unique natural wonders found on Socotra is the dragon’s blood tree – an umbrella-shaped tree infused with red sap – as well as a host of endemic animals ranging from birds, crabs, and lizards. Sadly, the ongoing civil war in Yemen has caused deforestation and major biodegradation in Socotra, threatening many of the unique plant and animal life forms found on the wondrous island.