The Galápagos of the Indian Ocean — dragon blood trees and alien landscapes
Socotra is one of the most biodiverse and otherworldly islands on Earth — a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose extreme isolation has produced a third of its plant species found nowhere else. The dragon blood tree (Dracaena cinnabari), with its umbrella-shaped canopy and crimson sap, is the island's symbol. White sand dunes meet turquoise lagoons, while frankincense and myrrh have been traded here since antiquity. Despite being part of Yemen, the island has largely been spared the civil war's worst destruction.
Socotra has been inhabited for at least 2,000 years, known to ancient Greeks, Romans, and Arab traders as a source of frankincense, myrrh, dragon's blood resin, and aloe. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century AD) describes it as a Greek-speaking island. Colonised by Portugal in 1507, then passing to the Mahra Sultanate and eventually British India (1876–1967), Socotra was isolated enough that its unique Socotri language (unwritten until recently) and biodiversity were preserved. UNESCO inscribed the archipelago in 2008 as a natural World Heritage Site.