A tsunami in the Indian Ocean caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake caused parts of Maldives to be covered by sea water and left many people homeless.
Maldives granted the British a 100-year lease on Gan (with a Ј2000-a-year rent), as well as 440,000 square metres on Hitaddu for radio installations.
Some scholars believe that the name "Maldives" derives from the Sanskrit maladvipa, meaning "garland of islands," or from "mahila dvipa," meaning "island of women."
During the 1970s, the Maldives' main export market for dried fish, in Sri Lanka, collapsed, and the British decided to close its airfield on Gan.
Bellerophon tried to fly to Mount Olympus, the realm of the Gods, on Pegasus' back.
Per capita GDP was $7675 in 2005, ranking the Maldives at 79th place on a list of 181 nations.
Politics in the Maldives takes place in the framework of a presidential republic.
During the British era, which lasted until 1965, Maldives continued to be ruled under a succession of sultans, although the sultan's authority was increasingly taken over by the chief minister.
Most other cultures supporting marriage at such a young age practice arranged marriages; Maldives does not.
Only near the southern end of this natural coral barricade do two open passages permit safe ship navigation through the territorial waters of Maldives.
The most popular form of indigenous music is called boduberu, which appeared in the Maldives in about the eleventh century, and may have East African origins.
Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is an island nation consisting of a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean.
The legislature, the unicameral people’s Council or Majlis of the Maldives, is composed of 50 members—42 are elected by popular vote, while the president appoints eight.
Holding the record for being the flattest country in the world, with a maximum natural ground level of only 7.5 feet, (2.3 meters), Maldives is also the smallest Asian country in terms of population.
In 1558, the Portuguese established themselves on Maldives, which they administered from Goa on India's west coast.
The Maldives temperature ranges between 75°F and 91°F (24°C and 33°C) throughout the year.
Adherence to it is required for citizenship, and property ownership, therefore the Maldives is an almost exclusively Islamic society.
The Maldives have, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Project (UNDP), undertaken to write the first Muslim criminal code.
The people and government are worried that Maldives could be wiped from the map eventually.
The Maldives are located south of India's Lakshadweep islands, and about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south-west of Sri Lanka.
Heyerdahl's research indicates that in 2000 B.C.E., Maldives lay on the trading routes of early Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus Valley civilizations.
Tourism, Maldives' largest industry, accounts for 28 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 60 percent of the Maldives' foreign exchange receipts.
Maldives's 20-year period of authoritarian rule under Nasir abruptly ended in 1978 when he fled to Singapore—with millions of dollars from the state treasury.
Maldives had an abundant supply of cowrie shells, a form of currency that was widely used throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast since ancient times.
On December 26, 2004, a tsunami following an Indian Ocean earthquake devastated the Maldives.
Maldives remained a British protectorate until 1953 when the sultanate was suspended and the First Republic was declared under the short-lived presidency of Muhammad Amin Didi.
The last Buddhist king of Maldives, who had the old Divehi title of "Maha radun," converted to Islam in 1153, and adopted the Muslim title of Sultan Muhammad al Adil.
By the fourth century C.E., Theravada Buddhism originating from present-day Sri Lanka became the dominant religion of the people of Maldives.
Maldives has 26 natural atolls which have been divided into 20 administrative atolls and one city.