Maldives

Capital	Malé
Official Language	Divehi
Independence	26 July 1965
Area	298 km²
Population	396,334
Currency	Maldivian Rufiyaa (MVR)
IDD Code	+960

	Artsy Bitz Studio by Tina Lee Degreef. Enter HERE [Artsy Bitz Studio] to find out more		Looking for any suitable photos for yourself, business, book publication or etc? Click HERE [Boon's Gallery] to purchase
	Visit Shaun's blog about his mountain adventures here		Visit Shaun's blog about his running escapades here

Thinking of having better fitness? Click HERE [Addicted To Fitness] to find out more

Maldives, officially the Republic of the Maldives and also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean consisting of a double chain of twenty-six atolls, oriented north-south, that lie between Minicoy Island (the southernmost part of Lakshadweep, India) and the Chagos Archipelago. The chains stand in the Laccadive Sea, about 700km south-west of Sri Lanka and 400km south-west of India.

For the majority of its history, the Maldives has been an independent polity, despite three instances during which it was ruled by outside forces. In the mid-16th century, for fifteen years, the Maldives was dominated by the Portuguese Empire. In the mid-17th century, the Dutch Empire (Malabar) dominated Maldives for four months. Finally, in the late 19th century, on the brink of war, the Maldives became a British protectorate from 1887 until 1965. The Dutch referred to the islands as the "Maldivische Eilanden", while the British anglicised the local name for the islands first to the "Maldive Islands" and later to the "Maldives". The islands gained independence from the British Empire in 1965 and became a republic in 1968 ruled by a president and an authoritarian government