Peruvian surfer Carlos “Huevito” Areola rides a reed board, or “caballito” (little horse), into a wave at Sydney's Bondi Beach, February 24, 2016. Areola is part of a group of Peruvian surfers touring Australia’s east coast to promote the use of the “caballito”. The “caballito” is thought to have been invented around 3,000 BC in northern Peru. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

The largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95% of the landmass of the archipelago. It lies some 240 kilometres (150 mi) east of the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometres (240 mi) south of the Arabian Peninsula. The island is very isolated and through the process of speciation, a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. It has been described as the most alien-looking place on Earth. The island measures 132 kilometres (82 mi) in length and 49.7 kilometres (30.9 mi) in width.

An employe of Russian Space Training Center hangs out to dry space suits of Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, NASA's U.S. flight engineer Kathleen Rubins, and Japanese space agency's flight engineer Takuya Onishi, right, after their undergoing training near in Noginsk, 60 km (38 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. The training was intended to simulate the capsule landing on water. Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, Japanese space agency's flight engineer Takuya Onishi, and NASA's U.S. flight engineer Kathleen Rubins are being trained for a future mission to the International Space Station. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

A local farmer Theophilus Mwendwa runs through a swarm of desert locusts to chase them away in the bush near Enziu, Kitui County, some 200km east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya, 24 January 2020. Large swarms of desert locusts have been invading Kenya for weeks, after having infested some 70 thousand hectares of land in Somalia which the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has termed the “worst situation in 25 years” in the Horn of Africa. FAO cautioned that it poses an “unprecedented threat” to food security and livelihoods in the region. (Photo by Dai Kurokawa/EPA/EFE)

A handout photo made available by Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) shows veterinarian wearing protective masks and suit, conducting anesthesia procedure on Nenuah, a nine year old Bornean Orangutan before being transported and released to the Bukit Batikap protection forest, at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, 15 February 2021. BOSF and the national nature conservation agency (BKSDA) released 10 orangutans back to the wild in Bukit Batikap Protection Forest in Central Kalimantan and the Kehje Sewen Forest in East Kalimantan amid the pandemic according to BOSF. (Photo by BOSF Handout/EPA/EFE)

Twin brothers Keith (L) and Deano Stapleton (R) interact with one another as people gather to witness the winter solstice on December 21, 2022 in Newgrange, Ireland. Crowds are gathering at Newgrange in Co Meath, this morning for the winter solstice – the astronomical phenomenon that marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Newgrange is a Stone Age (Neolithic) monument in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, it is the jewel in the crown of Ireland's Ancient East and was constructed approximately 5,200 years ago (3,200 B.C.) which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Birds are seen at Kizilirmak Bird Paradise in Turkey's Samsun on April 22, 2021. Kizilirmak Delta Bird Sanctuary, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List and hosts 359 to 487 species of birds in Turkey, became more active with the arrival of spring. (Photo by Mehmet Kumcagiz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

From Britain to China to Mali, new maps showing travel times to the nearest urban centre reveal huge differences between countries. Using Open Street Map and Google, a University of Oxford team have created a visual breakdown that suggests major inequalities when it comes to commuting. Here: China. The dataset used for China was unique as it relied solely on Open Street Map, due to restrictions on accessing Google data. The population is densely concentrated in the east and accessibility is increased, whereas rural provinces in the west remain remote. (Photo by Daniel Weiss/Jennifer Rozier/Malaria Atlas Project/University of Oxford)