Socotra

Socotra or Suqutra is an island of the south-west of the Yemen (it forms part, with the town of Aden, of the Gouvernorat of Aden), in the Indian Ocean, with the entry of the gulf of Aden. It has a surface of 3579 km ². The principal commercial products are the Ghî, the Aloès and the Encens. The inhabitants live extensive breeding of bovines and goats. Socotra shares the history of Arabia of the South.

One speaks there the soqotri, which belongs to the family of the Semitic languages.

Before the expansion of Islam in 639, the island, populated Christians nestoriens, was called Dioscoride and been a counter égypto-Byzantine which traded with the Christians of Kerala, in India. Its first name meant: island of the Dioscures. At the 16th century, a commercial counter Portuguese was established on the island, then it was under British protectorate of 1886 with 1967 and belonged to the Democratic republic of the Yemen of the south of 1967 with 1990, period during which it became a Soviet military base .

The main city of the island is the capital Hadiboh (population estimated in 1984 at 51.000 inhabitants).

Socotra in mythology

Jacques Hébert made well put forth the assumption that this island would be the remainders of mythical the Atlantis because it is a subject which makes run much ink.

External bonds

the site of the development program and conservation of the archipelago of Socotra
the site of the friends of Socotra
the site of John Farrar dedicated to Socotra
Photographs of the Island of Socotra

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