Qulensya (; alt. Qalansiyah, Qalansia) is a town on the main island of

Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’s ...

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

. Its approximate population is 4,000.

History

The area around Qulensya is host to several

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

sites created at an undetermined time. One site called Simar Qar lies west of the town. It consists of what appears to be an

altar stone An altar stone is a piece of natural stone containing relics in a cavity and intended to serve as the essential part of an altar for the celebration of Mass in the Catholic Church. Consecration by a bishop of the same rite was required. In the Byza ...

and two

rock cupule Rock cupules () are artificially made depressions on rock surfaces that resemble the shape of an inverse spherical cap or dome. They were made by direct percussion with hand-held hammer-stones, on vertical, sloping or horizontal rock surfaces. C ...

s with letters inscribed on the sides. Another site, known as Haida, was discovered in 1900 to the north of the town towards the mountains, though its exact location is unknown. At this site, inscriptions were found which were believed to have been from either a late

Himyaritic Himyaritic is an unattested or sparsely attested Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Yemen, by the Himyarite tribal confederacy. It was a Semitic language but either did not belong to the Old South Arabian (''Sayhadic'') languages accordi ...

or an Ethiopic script. Before an 1876 protection treaty with the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, the island of Socotra was barely governed by the ruling

Mahra Sultanate The Mahra Sultanate, known in its later years as the Mahra State of Qishn and Socotra ( ar, الدولة المهرية للبر وسقطرى ') or sometimes the Mahra Sultanate of Ghayda and Socotra ( ar, سلطنة المهرة في الغيض� ...

. Socotra was merely used as a tax farm by the sultan, who annually sent a relative to collect taxes in the form of

ghee Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals. Description Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from c ...

. These taxes were primarily collected from the villages of

Hadibu Hadibu ( ar, حديبو '), also known as Hadiboh, formerly known as Tamrida ( ar, links=no, تمريدة), is a coastal town in northern Socotra, Yemen. It is not far from the mount ''Jabal al-Jahir''. It is the largest town of the small archipe ...

Qād̨ub Qād̨ub () is a town on the island Socotra. It is located in the Socotra Governorate The Socotra Archipelago ( ar, أرخبيل سقطرى ') or Suqutra is officially one of the governorates of Yemen. It is composed of the Guardafui Channe ...

, and Qulensya. During this time period, Qulensya was one of the five largest villages on the island, though these five urban agglomerations altogether had a population of only 1,880 people. Detwah lagoon (6408178947)

In 2003, a proposal by Yemen's public works authority was submitted to construct a road connecting Qulensya to the island's capital of Hadibu. This new construction would have violated Yemeni conservational law in place to protect the

Detwah Lagoon Detwah Lagoon ( ar, link=no, ديطواح لاجون, also transliterated Ditwah Lagoon) is a lagoon on the coast of Socotra, Yemen. Located on the island's northwest coast near Qalansiyah, the saline lagoon connects to the Gulf of Aden, from wh ...

Nature Sanctuary, which the road would have cut through. After presidential intervention, the road was diverted around the sanctuary to follow the path of an already existing trail. More recent plans have also called for a road connecting Qulensya to the isolated fishing village of

Neet NEET, an acronym for "Not in Education, Employment, or Training", refers to a person who is unemployed and not receiving an education or vocational training. The classification originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1990s, and its use has ...

to its southwest, which is home to approximately 300 seasonal fishermen who spend much of the year in Qulensya itself. In December 2004, the island of Socotra was impacted by the

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

caused by an earthquake of at least 9.0 magnitude off the coast of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

. The runup of the tsunami was roughly higher than usual in Qulensya, in line with estimates from across the island. The only fatality caused by the tsunami on Socotra occurred in Qulensya, when a seven-year-old child was drowned by the wave after attempting to catch a fish which was exposed when the waters receded before impact.

Demographics

Qulensya has a population of approximately 4,000, second only to Hadibu in size on the island. Together, these two urban settlements make up nearly a third of Socotra's total population of 44,000. They are some of the only settlements on the island which have been inhabited by migrants from mainland Yemen, and represent a growing trend of urbanization in the northern coastal regions of Socotra.

Geography

Qulensya lies at the northwestern corner of Socotra, at the end of the central Hajhir mountain range, which overlooks the town. Qulensya is situated in a relatively fertile plain compared to the rest of the island.

References

{{Reflist Populated places in Socotra