Maldives attained complete independence from the British on July 26, 1965. It became a republic on Nov 11, 1968. Divehi is the official language of the country. The Maldives or Maldives Islands, officially the Republic of Maldives, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a doubt chain of twenty-sis 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 kms south-west of Sri-lanka.
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Maldives is spread over an area of 300 sq.km. It features 1,192 islets, of which two hundred islets are inhabited. Maldives’s capital and largest city is Male, with a population of over one lakh (2006). Traditionally, the nation was a king’s island, from where the ancient Maldive royal dynasties ruled and where the famous palace was located.