SANA'A, March 07 (Saba) - The Switzerland New 7 Wonders Foundation announced including the Socotra island in the 77 international sites to compete for new seven wonders of the world.

The foundation run by Bernard Weber, will adopt a global competition to name the new seven wonders of the world which would be followed by a via-internet poll in January 2009.

Among 77 most favored international sites, the island has been ranked 74th.
Those 77 sites include the Saudi Al-Ahsa' oasis, the Dead Sea in Jordan, the Jeita Cave in Lebanon and the Nile River in Egypt and Sudan.

The foundation made conditions to ensure the participation of all sites in the second phase of poll ended on December 31,2008.

In the second stage 21 sites would be picked from the pool of the world's wonders and from them the new seven wonders would be selected in January 2009.

Socotra is a 3625 km² island located in the Indian Ocean, some 450 km south of the Yemeni economic city of Aden but it is a part of Hadramout province of Yemen.

With estimated population 45,000, Socotra Island has three geographical terrains: the narrow coastal plains, a limestone plateau permeated with karstic caves, and the Haggier Mountains which rise to 5000 feet.

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 causing inaccessible of the marine transportation from June to September.

However, in July 1999 a new airport opened Socotra to the outside year round. The long geological isolation of Socotra and its fierce heat and drought have combined to create a unique and spectacular endemic flora.

Surveys have revealed that more than a third of the 800 or so plant species of Socotra are found nowhere else. Botanists rank the flora of Socotra among the ten most endangered island flora in the world.

One of the most striking of Socotra's plants is the dragon's blood tree (Dracaena cinnabari), which is a strange-looking, umbrella-shaped tree. Its red sap was the dragon's blood of the ancients, sought after as a medicine and a dye.

The island also has a fairly rich bird fauna, including a few types of endemic birds, such as the Socotra Starling Onychognathus frater, the Socotra Sunbird Chalcomitra balfouri, Socotra Sparrow Passer insularis and Socotra Golden-winged Grosbeak Rhynchostruthus socotranus.

Fourteen mammal and 175 bird species that live today on the island have been recorded as endemic species. Being virtually isolated from the rest of the world for a long period, Socotra remains one of the most fascinating places on earth.

Its unique character with greatest Biological diversity makes Socotra a potential candidate for designation as one of the new 7 wonders of nature.

FR/YA