🇲🇻 Maldives

National Flag

Geography & Borders

This country has no land borders.

Introduction & Background

Maldives (/ˈmɔːldiːvz/, US: /ˈmɔːldaɪvz/; Template:Lang-dv, Template:IPA-dv), officially the Republic of Maldives (Template:Lang-dv, Template:IPA-dv), is an archipelagic state in South Asia, in the Indian Ocean. It lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 750 kilometres (470 miles; 400 nautical miles) from the Asian continent's mainland. The chain of 26 atolls stretches across the equator from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south.

Comprising a territory spanning roughly 90,000 square kilometres (35,000sqmi) including the sea, land area of all the islands comprises 298 square kilometres (115sqmi), Maldives is one of the world's most geographically dispersed sovereign states and the smallest Asian country as well as one of the smallest Muslim-majority countries by land area and, with around 557,751 inhabitants, the 2nd least populous country in Asia. Malé is the capital and the most populated city, traditionally called the "King's Island" where the ancient royal dynasties ruled for its central location.13