Hoq Cave - Socotra

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Hoq Cave is one of the most fascinating sights on Socotra Island. The cave is huge and said to be the largest cave in the middle east. According to what we have been told by the guides on my visit in 2020, nobody has ever reached it's end and the length is at least 13km long. As there is only little tourism to the island, this is not you tipical touristy cave. There is no official way to walk on, so the ground inside is very muddy (bring good shoes!), there are no artificial lights inside the cave (bring a flashlight or head lamp!) and you will not have to buy a ticket. But you will not have the comfort of parking right in front of the cave as well. To get to the entrance, you will have to hike a trail from the road below which will take about one hour and a half. Most tours will go 2km into the cave before they return. At the returning point, you can find a small lake. To go to the cave you will need a local guide as there are no signs on the trail. As almost every tourist that comes to Socotra is on a tour already, you will most likely not have to worry about finding one.

In 2001, a group of belgian speciologists took a trip farther into the cave and found a large number of inscriptions, drawings and archaeological objects. Investigations showed that these were left by sailors who visited the island between the 1st century BC and the 6th century AD. Most of these are written in the Indian Brāhmī script, but there are also inscriptions in South Arabian, Ethiopic, Greek, Palmyrene and Bactrian scripts and languages. This corpus of nearly 250 texts and drawings thus constitutes one of the main sources for the investigation of Indian Ocean trade networks in that time period. (Source: Wikipedia)

Photo: self

Photo: self

Photo: self

Internet is hard to find on Socotra so I suggest you to download or print out the coordinates and questions before your trip.

I visited the island and this cave on a guided tour with welcometosocotra.com. There are also a few other tour organizations that organize trips to Socotra and this cave.

I do not recommend to visit Hoq Cave without a local guide / guided tour!