Socotra Island is about 87 miles long and between 25 and 31 miles wide, covering an area of 1,400 square miles. It lies in the Arabian Sea, 180 miles south of the Arabian Peninsula and 120 miles due east of mainland Africa where the nearest point is Cape Guardafui in Somalia. The island is famed for its extraordinary biodiversity and unique botanical curiosities. Of the more than 800 plant species so far identified on the island, one third are endemic. This exceptionally high percentage ranks Socotra among the top ten most important places of botanical interest in the world.Socotran Desert Roses (Adenium obesum sokotranum) thriving on limestone rock along the Hala Coast are larger and exhibit more swollen trunks than the species that grow on the African mainland.