• A country consisting of a chain of coral islands in the Indian Ocean south-west of Sri Lanka; population 364,000 (estimated 2015); official language, Maldivian; capital, Male.

  马尔代夫（斯里兰卡西南面印度洋岛国，由一系列珊瑚岛组成；2009年估计人口396, 300；官方语言马尔代夫语；首都马累）

The islands were probably first settled from southern India and Sri Lanka, but later came under Arab influence. A British protectorate from 1887, the Maldives became independent within the Commonwealth of Nations under the rule of a sultan in 1965 and then as a republic in 1968