Maldives: where you can relax

The Maldives, officially Republic of Maldives, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls stretching in a north-south direction. It stands in the Laccadive Sea, 402 km (250 mi) south-west of India.

The chain of islands is an archipelago, which are in reality the tops of a vast undersea mountain range in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The atolls of the Maldives encompass a territory spread over roughly 90,000 square km (34,750 sq miles), making it one of the most dispersed countries in the world in geographic terms.

It features 1,192 islands, of which two hundred are inhabited. The Republic of Maldives’s capital and largest city is Malé, with a population of 103,693 (as of 2006).

The Maldives are the smallest Asian country in both population and land area. With an average ground level of 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) above sea level, it is the lowest country on the planet. It is also the country with the lowest highest point in the world, at 2.3 metres (7 ft 7 in).