Location

 * The name of the Socotra island originated from one old forgotten language-dialect spoken at one time by the pre-historic passers to the island. This ancient term of a name given for the island was "Eipheba Sakhotora" which used to mean "The island of Happiness.

Foreign academics, Oriental and historians may pronounce the name in four different ways: Asqo'ter, Soqutri, Sou'qatra and Soqotra. Ancient Greeks called it "Dyo-sacreeda", while in the Romans' language it is known as "Dyo-Socor-Yahlas" and "Dyo-Sotori". Moreover, one ancient Greek language gave it the names "fia-Soqa'tra" and "Soqater". Coming to the inhabitants of the island itself, the common belief among them is that the name was derived from combining two words together; Al-Souq (meaning the market in Arabic) and "Qatra" (meaning a single drop of any liquid).

One of the Portuguese military troops colonized the island (1507-1557). They stayed till the end of the fifteenth century , just few years before the Dutch invaded the island in 1614. Then, the British; colonized Aden on January (1839).

The island had been, during the British rule, used either as a temporary depot and refuge of the British crews and seamen, or as the light-house location for guidance of the marine route for their ships. It was also known to be one military garrison for the British troops.

On 30^th November 1967 the island became part of what was known as (South Yemen). But now after the reunification on 22^nd May (1990), It is a part of Republic of Yemen.

 Area

* Socotra stretches as a piece of land with an area of about 3650 square Km; up to a length 125 kilometer and width of 33 Km in the Indian Ocean , with an archipelago of small islands like AL-Akhawain(the two brothers) island,Darsah island,Samh island and Abdul Kori island which is the most densely populated and is always known for its affluence of Diamonds collection. It is the second largest an archipelago after socotra.