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The Maldives, [c] officially the Republic of Maldives, [d] and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India , about 750 kilometres (470 miles; 400 nautical miles) from the Asian continent's mainland.
This list ranks the top 10 islands of the Maldives by area. Some islands in the Maldives, although geographically one island, is divided into two administrative islands (for example, Gan and Maandhoo in Laamu Atoll). For such cases, this list ranks the entire (combined) area of the geographical island.
For administrative purposes the Maldives government organized these atolls into twenty-one administrative divisions. [2] The largest island of Maldives is Gan, which belongs to Laamu Atoll or Hahdhummathi Maldives. [3] In Addu Atoll the westernmost islands are connected by roads over the reef and the total length of the road is 14 km (8.7 mi). [4]
The Maldives is located south of India's Lakshadweep islands, and about seven hundred kilometres (435 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka. The twenty-six atolls of Maldives' encompass a territory featuring 1,192 islets , two hundred and fifty islands of which are inhabited.
The islands in the atolls of the Maldives rest on the shelf provided by the reefs. Many reefs have no islands at all, but all islands in the Maldives have an underlying coralline reef. Usually islands are flat and sandy. Often there is a rocky bottom made up of a coral rock conglomerate underneath the island proper.
The Sultanate of the Maldive Islands [2] was an Islamic monarchy that controlled the Maldives for 815 years (1153–1968), with one interruption from 1953–1954. Maldives was a Buddhist kingdom until its last monarch, King Dhovemi , converted to Islam in the year 1153; thereafter he also adopted the Muslim title and name Sultan Muhammad al-Adil.
The Maldives received rice in exchange for cowry shells. The Bengal-Maldives cowry shell trade was the largest shell currency trade network in history. [30] In the Maldives, ships could take on fresh water, fruit and the delicious, basket-smoked red flesh of the black bonito, a delicacy exported to Sindh, China and Yemen. The people of the ...
The agreement was signed by Ibrahim Nasir Rannabandeyri Kilegefan, Prime Minister of the Maldive Islands, representing the King of the Maldives, and Sir Michael Walker, British Ambassador designate to the Maldive Islands, representing Queen Elizabeth II. This marked the conclusion of British responsibility for the defense and external affairs ...