Last week I was in one of the most instagrammable tourist destinations of the moment: The Maldives. Secluded within a few square meters of pure paradise, my life consisted of a succession of activities such as eating, diving, eating, snorkelling, laying on the beach, taking photos and eating some more. Despite my busy schedule, I still had some time to read about this nation and learn some facts about it.
To spice things up, I have made a video of seven facts about the Maldives. Sorry, video is only in Spanish, I could not make it in English. If you don’t understand Spanish, you can read a summary of what I am saying down below, and you can watch the video just to see how pretty this island is. Without further due, here are the seven facts about the Maldives:
Fact 1: Area
The Maldives’ territory encompasses around 90000 square kilometres. Only 1% is land, the rest, 99%, is water.
Fact 2: Economy
Maldives economy is mainly based on tourism, followed by fishing. They also process and export coconut.
Fact 3: Laws
A democratic republic, Maldives is an Islamic country and its legal system is based on Sharia or Islamic law. There are very strict rules in regards to clothing (especially for women), food consumption (no pork), alcohol, drugs… These rules, however, don’t apply inside resorts (well, with drugs, it does), and guests can drink and eat anything they would like and women can wear bikinis.
Fact 4: Size
The Maldives is the smallest country in Asia and the smallest Muslim country in the world.
Fact 5: Sand
The sand in the beach is not made out of quartz crystals like most beaches, but limestone. This composition doesn’t absorb as much heat and as a result, the sand never burns your feet.
Fact 6: Sand formation
The sand of the Maldives is mainly formed off of the byproduct of parrot fish meals: its poop. Parrot fish eat the polyps from the coral formations but cannot digest the exoskeleton. The constant deposition of parrot poop has greatly contributed (up to 70%) to the formation of the Atolls that form this country.
Fact 7: Altitude
The Maldives is the flattest, lowest country in the world on average. The highest point is at 2.4 metres and the lowest is at sea level.
Do you want to learn more about the Maldives? Click on this link for a very interesting article about this country.
