The Maldives or Maldive Islands otherwise officially known as ” the Republic of Maldives, is an island nation consisting of a group of atolls stretching south of India’s Lakshadweep islands between Minicoy Island and the Chagos Archipelago, and about seven hundred kilometres (435 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka in the Laccadive Sea of Indian Ocean. The twenty-six atolls of Maldives encompass a territory featuring 1,192 islets, of which two hundred and fifty islands are inhabited.” This is what the wikipedia tells us in brief.
Maldive’s inhabitants were Buddhist, who probably originated since Ashoka’s period in the 3rd century BC and possibly Hindu before that.In 1153, Islam was also introduced. The Maldives was under the rule and influence of the Portuguese (1558) and the Dutch (1654) seaborne empires. In 1887 the island became a British protectorate. A century after, in 1965, the Maldives obtained independence from Britain and finally in 1968 the Sultanate became a Republic.
The Maldives boasts about its many superlative qualities. In terms of population and area, the Maldives is the smallest Asian country; similarly it is the smallest predominantly Muslim nation in the world. With two meters from sea level, it is also the country with the lowest highest point in the world.
Because of its location, the development of tourism contributed to the growth of the country’s economy. the isalnd was rarely visited by any group of foreigners, but the first tourist resorts were opened in 1972 with Bandos island resort and Kurumba Village. Nowadays, tourism in Maldives is the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner. It has contributed to twenty percent of the nation’s GDP. As of 2006 update, there are 35 tourist resorts in operation and a record of 467,154 tourist arrivals.