Unearthly Island
September 12, 2008 10:57 PM   Subscribe

Even the inhabitants of Socotra might think some of their island is beautiful but a bit outré.... Alien landscapes on Earth.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth (19 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
Whoa. That's like the Great Race of Yith made out with landscape features from trippier 80s videogames and you just took a bunch of acid, and then Roger Dean painted it.
posted by Artw at 11:18 PM on September 12, 2008


Hey - ArtW clearly hooked up his videogames to my mind because that was exactly what I was thinking. Something that a gentle Japanese animatrix would have done for an updated managnized version of the Ring Trilogy, that ends up being almost an art form of its own. Crikey, My Roger Dean poster is peeling off the wall....blue tack is rubbish!
posted by Dreddlox at 11:27 PM on September 12, 2008


This and New Zealand would be amazing to see.
posted by metricfan at 11:34 PM on September 12, 2008


This is the Dragon's Blood Tree, the coolest of the Dracaena by far. The Canary island version looks like a monk's parasol.
posted by Dreddlox at 11:39 PM on September 12, 2008


Thanks for posting this; I'm extremely glad I saw these photos.
posted by chudmonkey at 11:45 PM on September 12, 2008


When I was a lot younger, I decided that Socotra was what had remained in written memory as Eden. Now that I've seen so many more images, I find myself even more loathe to release that youthful fancy.
posted by batmonkey at 11:53 PM on September 12, 2008


Dear Yemen,

Socotra. Please.


GIVE ME IT.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:12 AM on September 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


so cool! thanks for the post. and these pigeon towers of iran in a related post are pretty neat, too.
posted by blendor at 1:34 AM on September 13, 2008


Kronos_to_Earth
Eponysterical! Who'd of known you were already there; I see a film plot that doesn't involve a master race of damn dirty apes and a spaceship crash materialising...
posted by nfg at 1:49 AM on September 13, 2008


Those trees remind me of Myst, for some reason.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:56 AM on September 13, 2008


Wow. I was in Iceland a couple of weeks ago, and I thought that place felt like being on the moon, what with all the lava fields and steam coming out of the ground, but this place looks as though its been generated by that software landscape program that creates everything using fractals.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:16 AM on September 13, 2008


I was wondering just why they call it a dragon tree... then I read it has red sap. Red sap! Cut it and it bleeds! That's just too trippy...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:31 AM on September 13, 2008


Fascinating, I had no idea this place was so. Thank you.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:37 AM on September 13, 2008


Wow, what bizarre features! I'd never heard of this place before. It's remarkable.
posted by pookzilla at 5:41 AM on September 13, 2008


Whoa. If you type 'socotra' into google maps, this is what you get.

I'm going.
posted by nosila at 7:29 AM on September 13, 2008


and then Roger Dean painted it.

Roger Dean's architecture would be perfect for this place.
posted by homunculus at 10:40 AM on September 13, 2008


Amazing. Thank you for posting this!
posted by pravit at 11:14 AM on September 13, 2008


From the Wikipedia page:

Flora and fauna:

See also: List of spiders of Socotra


Zounds!
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 2:29 PM on September 13, 2008


Holy crap, that is so cool.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:45 PM on September 13, 2008


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