THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Since the earliest times, people have known Socotra as a place apart.  Herodotus wrote that this was where the immortal phoenix came to be reborn twice every thousand years.  The frankincense burned in the temples of ancient Egypt and Greece grew here, guarded, so it was believed, by flying snakes.  Marco Polo reported that the islanders were “the most expert enchanters in the world,” adept at controlling the winds.  Others recorded that the Socotrans used spells to make the island disappear, leaving invaders to search an empty sea.

Oberhoizer/Socotra, 2010