Socotra Island

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YEMEN SAIJIKI

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Socotra Island

***** Location: Yemen
***** Season: Topic
***** Category: Earth

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Explanation




The Socotra Island ; meaning 'the island of bliss'.


Socotra or Soqotra is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean. The largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95% of the landmass of the archipelago. It lies off some 240 kilometres (150 mi) east of the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometres (240 mi) south of the Arabian Peninsula.
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.

Socotra is one of the most isolated landforms on Earth of continental origin (i.e. not of volcanic origin). The archipelago was once part of the supercontinent of Gondwana and detached during the Miocene, in the same set of rifting events that opened the Gulf of Aden to its northwest.

Socotra is considered the jewel of biodiversity in the Arabian Sea.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


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For those who like to know more about Socotra:

The island of the Phoenix
The importance of the island had always been based on four almost miraculous commodities: frankincense with its deeply mysthic meaning for ancient nations, myrrh as a medicine and basis for luxurious perfumes, dragon blood used for body decorations and medical treatments, and aloe also very precious in traditional medicine.
snip
The first mention of Socotra in record however does not concern the heavy smell of frankincense but the noise of weapons. During his war adventures, the young Greek titan Alexander the Great got attracted by Socotra. It is said that it was Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, who peaked interest in Socotra by referring to the availability of myrrh some time around 330 BC.
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First-century B.C. accounts (Diodorus of Sicily) report that Socotra supplied the entire world with myrrh, ladanum, and other aromatic plants.

MORE
http://socotra-eco-tours.webnode.com/products/socotra-history/


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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

strange planet...
over dragon's blood trees I
fly back to a known land


possibly haunted
cormorants return
from shipwrecks






Island of Bliss --
all those fat bottle trees
make me much more thirsty



The Island of Bliss
harsh, hot, dry - I got
my own opinion



picturesque
all sandy beaches
just for birds

Heike Gewi, Yemen




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Related words


***** . Begonia socotrana and Arabian gentian 　


***** YEMEN SAIJIKI



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