Talk:Socotra

Untitled

The article needs a locator map. OverMyHead 16:13, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Population

Contradictory statements: Info box on right says: Largest city Hadiboh (pop 43,000)); Socatra 80,000. "People and Economy" says: Almost all inhabitants of Socotra live on the main island (estimated population 43,000 in 2004). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tiddy (talk • contribs) 04:23, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

I've changed the reference to Soqotri as "an unwritten dialect of Arabic" to read "a Semitic language", as the separate article of Soqotri makes it clear that it's not a dialect of Arabic.Manormadman (talk) 14:42, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Alien?

Needs more photos of alien landscape. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.77.165.103 (talk) 01:35, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Deletion

I think this article was very helpful and I would oppose its deletion. Maybe a revision is in order, but I think that deletion is unnecessary. I am a person who browses wikipedia quite often and I found this bit of information very interesting. Especially because I plan on living in a low-key place such as Socotra in my later years. Thank you for considering my opinion.

-Brett, Virginia, USA

Austria?

Hi in the history section it mentions that socotra was breifly ruled by austria.i have been able to find no evidence to support this.Please could someone explain.

King Tom-U.K

Good question. The Austrian Empire having been transcontinental depends upon this. Maybe there is a German or Arabic-language website documenting this. Heff01 21:23, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Re: Austria

Really, in 1860-70s when Austrian Empire hes a fleet there was an idea to take Soqotra to be an Austrian territory and this forced the British Empire to sign a treaty with the Qish and Soqotra Sultan in 1876 (the island bacame a British Protectorate in 1886). See Farouk Osman Abatha's book "Aden..." (in Arabic) and Walter Dostal's works. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.141.189.224 (talk) 17:48, 14 March 2007 (UTC).

Malachoria

I'm not sure if this unsourced stub is factual or a hoax, but it refers to this same island under a different name (or perhaps a nationalist movement there). Can somebody verify it, and if necessary, either improve that article (with sources, preferably), or if it is simply another name, merge it into this article and make the page a redirect? Rigadoun (talk) 21:51, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Taken care of. I used to live in Yemen, and went to Socotra several times. There is no such thing as "Malachoria." The people (socotris) refer to their island as Socotra, and nothing but. There is no nationalist movement, either. gvilweevil 12:27, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

I have {{prod}}ed the Malachoria article, as it may be a hoax. Rigadoun (talk) 16:45, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Island of Africa?

I noticed that Socotra is in the category 'Islands of Africa', despite being part of Yemen, which is an Asian country.--HisSpaceResearch 04:53, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Socotra is clearly closer to Somalia than the Yemen mainland and is geographically African, but geopolitically Asian. See the transcontinental country article. Heff01 21:21, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Confusing Statement

"The archipelago was once part of the supercontinent of Gondwana and detached during the Middle Pliocene (ca 6 million years ago)". This makes it sound like Socotra was part of Gondwana only 6 millions years ago. That can't be right; the world was basically in it's current configuration 6 millions years ago, and Gondwana was, by then, ancient history. Probably needs rephrasing but I'm not sure what the writer really intended to say.

And another one:

"The climate is generally tropical desert, with rainfall being light, seasonal (winter) and more abundant at the higher ground in the interior than along the coastal lowlands. The monsoon season brings strong winds and high seas."

Anyone who can make sense of that sentence? please give it rewrite. Sertmann (talk) 08:29, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

More Soqotra information on Russian Wikipedia

There are more information about Soqotra at ru.wikipedia in Russian, especially connecting with the history of Soqotra and Soqotra's references such as MP3 Soqotri speach recording address and etc.

Dragon tree

The dragon tree showed here is Dracaena draco from Canary Islands (in Socotra occurs Dracaena cinnabari). --Xvazquez (talk) 16:22, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

See the Commons page. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 20:05, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Socotra recognised as World Heritage Site

BirdLife News.

Website link with some nice pictures of the landscape

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/09/most-alien-looking-place-on-earth.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.169.75.187 (talk) 23:45, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Confusing conflicts

I found a number of apparent conflicts with other articles and the OED, relating to language, religion, and even the species of the drangonsblood trees. This last point may be related to the comment above about the trees.

It's possible some of these points merely need updating. For example, it may have once been Christian but is now Muslim, or Soqotri may be related to modern Arabian languages but also to the most ancient languages of the Near East. Whatever the case, the article needs to spell this out.

--UnicornTapestry (talk) 11:04, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Who cares if it conflicts with the OED. Lots of entries in it are inaccurate, but who cares? Find more specialised refs to be certain. Get a book about languages for Soqotri, a book on botany (and maybe somebody from WP:PLANTS) for the plants, and so on. As for Soqotri, yes, it is "related to modern Arabian languages but also to the most ancient languages of the Near East," if you want to put it that way. innotata (Talk | Contribs) 16:02, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

The religion question is a good one. There is some discussion here of Christianity coming to the islands, but nothing about the arrival of Islam. I am not arguing for deletion of the former, but would like to see the latter added if someone has the info on it. 155.213.224.59 (talk) 15:18, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Photos

Many of the photos look like someone wanted to show off their holiday photos. They dont give any extra information to the reader. I think most of them should be deleted.--82.130.17.168 (talk) 03:51, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Build-up of US army on Socotra?

On my link, there is a report about a build-up of US troops on the Socotra island. If this is true, then there should be something about it implemented into the article.

http://yemenpost.net/Detail123456789.aspx?ID=3&SubID=4793&MainCat=3

http://presstv.com/detail/228662.html

http://www.pacificrimcoins.com/pacrim/content/debka-massive-us-military-buildup-two-strategic-islands-socotra-and-masirah

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/02/24/US-troops-arrive-on-Yemeni-island/UPI-63791330119944/

http://www.yemenfox.net/news_details.php?sid=2187

http://bikyamasr.com/?s=socotra&x=0&y=0 --Da Dashz (talk) 17:12, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Don't be so silly mate, this is Wikipedia, you will be branded a "conspiracy theorist" for even mentioning it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.166.13.206 (talk) 02:04, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Oh really?And why is that?There are sources. --Da Dashz (talk) 17:53, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Your first link says that the Yemeni government denies the presence of U.S. troops and blames Israel for the story. The article refers to this article in The Economist, which says "DEBKAfile, an excitable but at times well-informed Israeli security website, reported that 'many thousands' of American troops have arrived" on Socotra and Masirah. So it's just a dubious rumour so far, but may be worth mentioning as such. —innotata 18:20, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Okay, you have a point, but of course Yemen will deny American presence on the island of Socotra, or even Masirah.Also, Israel does have secret ties with America as they are allies. I mean, come on, why is Gingrich and Obama talking about Israel all the time? They want to protect the country. Besides, the US has quite a bit of military presence in the Arabian peninsula.The Fifth Fleet is stationed in the Persian gulf and nearby even. I will look into this more, but I just want to state the truth. Nothing against the US, just keeping a close eye.--Da Dashz (talk) 15:32, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Religion?

Is it still predominantly Christian? --Anthonyhcole (talk) 07:11, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

It's mostly Muslim, as it has been since the 15th century or so. Here's a source, no good ones showed up in the first page of Google results. —innotata 21:27, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Socotra Island

Socotra Island the present and future and your new tourist world's.

Back ground. Socotra the virgin and charming Islands'. Its mountains wait for their explorers and discoverers. These mountains are covered with dragon-blood trees and other unusual plants. In Socotra you can see the breathtaking views of canyons and turquoise mountain lakes. Dessert plains, huge plateaus, deep gorges, mysterious caves, picturesque villages and ruins – all this is a picture of unique Socotra environment, a wonderful picture as if painted in the pre-historic period. Those who like relaxing on the beach can find there clean and virgin sand sea-shores. Naturalists will enjoy rocky shores with numerous species of unique wild life. Divers will have chances to plunge into the bright and colorful underwater world of Socotra. People from all over the world come to Socotra to enjoy them vacations on the beauty of the island and the unique variety of its flora and fauna.

Geography and Geology Socotra Island is one of the most isolated pieces of lands on earth. The Island probably detached from Africa as a fault block during the Middle Pliocene (about 6 million years ago) in the same set of rifting events that opened the Gulf of Aden to the North West. The Island lies in the north –western corner of the Western Indian Ocean, at the junction between the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea at 12- 30’N – 53-50’E. Socotra Island is composed of a basement complex of igneous and metamorphic rocks of Pre-Cambrian age overlain by sedimentary rocks, mainly limestone and sandstone. Topographically it can be divided into three main zones. The coastal plains vary considerably in width, up to about 5 km. The limestone plateau extends across most of the Island, averaging 300-700 m in altitude. This plateau drops in steep, often almost vertical, escarpments to the coastal plain or directly to the sea. It is dissected by a number of deep valleys, as well as drops away at the edges in steep cliffs and is eroded on the surface into karsts topography. The Haghier Mountains is the backbone of the Island is formed by the Haghier Mountains located in the north-west of the Island rise up to a height of 1519 m, these mountains rise dramatically along their sheer northern face and slope of more gently along the southern and eastern flanks. The top of Mashneq's is the highest point on the Island, it's about (1526 masl) and it is located in the central Haghier Massif. Although Socotra lies in the rain bearing monsoon belt, it is predominantly the Hagghier Mountains that attract the precipitation, with the result that their slopes are well vegetated and several of their steams are perennial.

Socotra caves Information and what to see in the Caves

Hoq Cave was the first cave to be surveyed by the Belgian Socotra Karst Project-team (SKP) in December 2000-January 2001, initiated by the geologist Peter De Geest. It is one of the most ancient metropolitan cave sites of the Middle East. The archaeologic remains are impressive. There are also numerous endemic troglobionts living in the cave. Hoq Cave is the type locality of several invertebrates, among them the Whip Scorpions. Hundreds of stalagmites, ranging in size from a few 10s of cm to an estimated 20 m, rise from the cave floor. Nearly all are presently inactive. Growing stalagmite and three inactive stalagmites ranging in size from 54 cm to 155 cm. Hoq Cave is a sort of semi wild show cave. Explored by the Belgian Soqotra Karst Project, it became famous among cavers, scientists, and tourists. In order to protect the cave, the Belgian cavers laid a path through 2,500m of the cave. They also trained local villagers to guide visitors. The idea was to protect the cave by offering the locals a living and teach them about the dangers. Moomi Caves - An extensive karst plateau lies to the east of the Haggier Mountains. There is several caves on this region are located about 4 km from one another at ~480 masl. Both caves contain numerous active and fossil stalagmites. Southwest Caves second high limestone plateau is located on the southwestern side of Soqotra Island. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Socotra holidays (talk • contribs) 15:44, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Not sure what this is supposed to do exactly, but it certainly paints a nice picture of the island. AVAAGAA↪ 04:18, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

Article in other languages - to be merged

Hi. There appears to be two separate versions of this article that exist independently of each other. This (English) version of the article is linked to the article in a few other languages, including Français. Another version of this article (wikidata: Q82859), however, is available in around 60 languages but is marked as a different article and hence cannot be linked to this English version without first merging the wikidata of both. Here's a link to the Simple English language version of the article: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socotra. AAldousari (talk) 20:32, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Separaism

Is there Separaism or language movement?--Kaiyr (talk) 14:59, 12 February 2015 (UTC)