Maldives

The MALDIVES is an Indian Ocean archipelago of atolls (islands of coral surrounding lagoons) located in southern Asia, particularly southwest of India and west of Sri Lanka. Maldivian government officials are known for being outspoken about environmental concerns related to climate change. Rising ocean water levels, coastal flooding, beach erosion, depleting freshwater resources, and waste-disposal issues are the country's environment problems. The capital of Maldives is Male (Malé), which has more than 100,000 residents. Male is located on Male island, a densely-populated area sitting along the North Male Atoll's southern edge. The Maldives' official language is Maldivian (Dhivehi), with English being another major spoken language. The currency is the Maldivian Rufiyaa, each Rufiyaa being subdivided into 100 laari. The currency's ISO 4217 code is MVR. Detailed maps of the Maldives' atolls are on the Maps of Maldives blog (maldivesmap.blogspot.com). On this simple but attractive blog, each map can be enlarged to original size by clicking on it, and then right-clicking to select Open image in new tab (Google Chrome) or a similar option (other browsers). A one-page feed is available for some web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, so that these maps can be viewed from one convenient page.