Inside 'most alien-looking place on earth' where most plant and animal life can't be found anywhere else
The remote island in Yemen has a host of unique flora and fauna
There's reportedly 900,000 official islands in the world, but there is one that's particularly unique.
Called Socotra Island, the land mass is an island off Yemen - one of the most dangerous countries in the world - that's located in the Indian Ocean over 200 miles away from the mainland.
Also known as Socotra Archipelago, it's made up of four different semi-desert islands - many of which have described as 'alien' - and is just 250km long.
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Socotra is one of the most remote islands on Earth, meaning not many are able to experience it's extremely unique landscape.
It's so unique, UNESCO labels it as being of 'universal importance' because of it's exclusive biodiversity.
It was named as a World Heritage Site in 2008, which some travel companies such as Welcome to Socotra offer trips to.
Of the 825 plant species on the island, almost a third of them can only be found on Socotra - and some of them boast pretty epic names.
It's most famous for its dragon blood trees (Dracaena cinnabari), which almost look like they've been AI-generated.
Sadly, these phenomenal trees are under threat as a result of climate change.
The warmer climes is causing the land to dry out, while Socotra is also said to be having fewer monsoon mists and fogs on which the trees depend for moisture, explains Dr Alan Forrest.
Another threat to the species of tree is the island's excess of goats eat the young seedlings, preventing more dragon blood trees growing into adulthood.
Meanwhile, the island also has bottle trees; which could only be compared to something straight out of a Harry Potter film. We all remember the screaming mandrake plants, right?
But it's not just its plant life that's exclusive to Socotra, but some of its reptiles and snails too.
As per UNESCO, 90 percent of its reptile species and 95 percent of its land snail species do not occur anywhere else in the world.
It's said that Socotra evolved around 15 to 20 million years ago when Arabia split from the African continental plate.
This division opened up the Gulf of Aden, leaving Socotra on the same continental plate of Africa.
It's the island remoteness that's thought to be the cause of it's extremely exclusive plants, reptiles and snails as the island won't have had any outside influence like more closely connected islands and countries are.
Some believe Socotra to be where the Garden of Eden was based - which is described is several religious texts - but this hasn't been confirmed.
Whether it's the real Garden of Eden or not, it still looks pretty amazing.
Topics: History, Nature, Travel, World News
Niamh Shackleton