Maldives is a small coral island country. Why do so many people want to go on holiday?

Maldives is an island country, consisting of more than 200 small coral islands in the southwest of India. The total land area is only about 300 square kilometers, which is less than 1/4 of Chongming Island.

This picture overlooks the Maldives from the satellite cloud image.

Seen from space, Maldives looks like a pearl necklace, noble and elegant.

During Zheng He's voyage to the West, there was a country going abroad in the southwest of Indian Peninsula, which was not a unified regime. It is composed of 38,000 islands (the specific figures were not available at that time, and it belongs to literary brushwork). There are not many aborigines on it, and they don't know about rice. The scope of foreign countries includes the Maldives and some islands in India.

This painting overlooks the island of Maldives.

There are eight big islands that slip into the ocean, all of which are famous. The most important thing is the official island skating, which is today's male island.

There are three straits in foreign countries. Because the island is rocky, the Ming fleet described it as three stone gates, from north to south, namely the equatorial strait, the first and a half strait and the octave strait today. The equator passes through the southern Maldives, and the strait here is called the equatorial strait. In the north, there is the widest strait in Maldives, which passes through the line of latitude 1.5. It is called one and a half straits, and it is one of the most important waterways in the east and west. There is also an octave strait between Maldives and India, which is the boundary of the territorial sea between the two countries. Daming fleet left a written record, reminding that there is quicksand (coral reef) underwater here, and sailing must pass through Shimen (Strait).

Map of the surrounding area of Dave, Toumar

Weak water 3 thousand, just take a spoonful. For daming fleet, among numerous foreign islands, Male Island and these three straits are the most important.

The Maldives Islands are narrow from east to west, narrow from north to south, about130km wide from east to west and about 820km long from north to south, even longer than the distance from Beijing, China to Pyongyang, North Korea. It is on an important channel in the east-west direction.

Map of Dave, Toumar

When daming fleet passes through here, Male Island is not only an important repair site, but also an important navigation mark in the Indian Ocean.

There are no primitive humans on these islands in Maldives. The original indigenous people came from the South Indian Peninsula, and they believed in Buddhism. Two or three hundred years before Zheng He came to the Maldives, the Maldives had been Islamized. At present, Maldivians are mostly from southern India and Arabian Peninsula.

The scenery of Dave in Toumar

Later, during the Ottoman Empire, although the Turks did not expand here, they conquered the vast Arab region. Therefore, the national flag of Maldives is based on the four-color flag of Islamic Arabia, only one black is missing, and then the moon in the Ottoman star and moon flag is added, which is a combination of Islamic Arabia and Ottoman Empire.

In colonial times, India was once a British colony, and Maldives was no exception. India is independent of 1947 and Maldives is independent of 1965. However, it is still a Commonwealth country with British military protection and economic control.

Toumar Dave woman

Since its independence, Maldives has not been invaded by foreign countries because of its deep position in the ocean. However, the Suvadai Islands, south of the once-and-a-half-strait, was once independent and was quickly quelled by the Maldivian military. There may be a coup in the capital, but it was also strangled in the bud by the army. Although the Maldives has an army size of only 1000, it is enough and does not need British protection. On the contrary, because it is a Commonwealth country, it is controlled by Britain everywhere. So in 20 16, Maldivian politics left the Commonwealth.

The scenery of Dave in Toumar

Maldives is a tourist country and one of the world's tourist attractions. Here are all small islands, one island and one hotel, which are very distinctive.

The area of Male, the capital, is only 1.5 square kilometers, which is 1.5 times that of Haixinshan in Qinghai Lake and 1/28 of the smallest Dongcheng District in Beijing. Such a small place, not only has a local population of10.5 million, but also a large number of tourists stay every day. Male, with a population of about 40% of the country, is the most important island in Maldives and a must-see for tourists.