The most Alien place on Earth.

1. The most Alien place on Earth Helga design Photos Jan Vandorpe Socotra Island

3. Africa Arabia Socotra Archipelago

5. The Socotra Archipelago reaches 250 miles east from Somalia into the Indian Ocean. Its four islands lie about that same distance south of Yemen. The area of the large island, Socotra, is 1400 square miles. Quiet and remote, its population is some 44,000. (Only +- sixty people live on the three small islands.)

18. Like the Galapagos Islands, this island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, a full 1/3 of which are endemic, i.e. found nowhere else on Earth . The climate is harsh, hot and dry, and yet - the most amazing plant life thrives there.

22. The trees and plants of this island were preserved thru the long geological isolation, some varieties being 20 million years old ...

23. The photographer and family