The Seven Brothers Islands, also known as the Sawabi Islands or Seba Islands, is an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

in the

Dact-el-Mayun The Dact-el-Mayun, also known as the Western strait, the large strait, the large pass or the wide pass, is the western section of the Bab-el-Mandeb straits, which separates Ras Menheli, Yemen, on the Arabian Peninsula from Ras Siyyan, Djibouti, on ...

section of the

Bab-el-Mandeb The Bab-el-Mandeb (), the Gate of Grief or the Gate of Tears, is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and by extension the Indian Ocean. ...

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

(between the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

and the

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden (; ) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channel, the Socotra Archipelago, Puntland in Somalia and Somaliland to the south. ...

). They are within the Obock sub-prefecture of

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

, and are a notable diving site. Even in English publications, the group is often called by its French name, ''îles des Sept Frères''.

Geography

The archipelago proper is a chain of six

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

s spanning about in a rough east-west line:
Sailing Directions (Enroute) - Red Sea and Persian Gulf
', page 162. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency pub. 172. Accessed 2012-07-6. * West Island, or Red Island (''H̱amra''), 62 m high * Double Island (''Ounḏa Dâbali''), 46 m high * Low Island (''Tolka''), 17 m high * Big Island ('' Kaḏḏa Dâbali''), 114 m high * East Island (''H̱orod le ‘Ale''), 83 m high * South Island (''‘Ounḏa Kômaytou''), 47 m high The "seventh brother" is not an island, but the volcanic hill at the northern tip of the Ras Siyyan

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

. West Island lies about east from the Siyyan

and northeast from the coast of Djibouti. All the islets are surrounded by reefs. All are brownish, except Big Island which is yellowish. There is a masonry marker on the summit of Big Island.

Important Bird Area

The archipelago has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports a breeding colony of lesser and

greater crested tern The greater crested tern Retrieved 28 February 2012 (''Thalasseus bergii''), also called crested tern, swift tern, or great crested tern, is a tern in the family Laridae that nests in dense colonies on coastlines and islands in the tropical and ...

Climate

The warmest month of the year is July with an average temperature of 39.0 °C. The archipelago consists of the main island of Kaḏḏa Dâbali, the five smaller islands of Ounḏa Dâbali, H̱amra, Tolka, H̱orod le ‘Ale and Ounḏa Kômaytou, as well as small rock outcrops that are uninhabitable for humans but important for seabirds. The sky is always clear and bright throughout the year. The climate of Seven Brothers Islands is classified in the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

as BWh, meaning a desert climate with a mean annual temperature over 29 °C or 84 °F.

References

Islands of Djibouti Important Bird Areas of Red Sea islands Important Bird Areas of Djibouti Bab-el-Mandeb {{Djibouti-geo-stub