Maldives - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maldives - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "lso referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls stretching in a north-south direction off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and Chagos Archipelago. It stands in the Laccadive Sea, about seven hundred kilometers (435 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka and (250 mi) south-west of India. During the colonial era, the Dutch referred to the country as 'Maldivische Eilanden' in their documentation, while 'Maldive Islands' is the anglicised version of the local name used by the British, which later came to be written 'Maldives"