Maldives

Maldives

The Republic of Maldives, also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 671 km southwest of Sri Lanka. The Maldives lies in two rows of atolls in the Indian Ocean, just across the equator. The country is made up of 1,190 coral islands formed around 26 natural ring-like atolls, spread over 90,000 km2. The Maldives is the smallest Asian country in both population and land area and it is the lowest country in the world.

The islands of Maldives appear in-between the trading route of the Indian Ocean. Thus settlers and visitors from neighbouring regions and around the world have come in contact with the islands for as long as history has been recorded. The to-and-fro flow of people and their cultures had a marked effect has been left in the Maldivian people, the language, beliefs, arts, and attitudes.

During the colonial era, the Dutch referred to the country as “Maldivische Eilanden” in their documentation, while “Maldive Islands” is the anglicised version of the local name used by the British, which later came to be written “Maldives”.