Almost everyone who I said I'm going to the Maldives, asked to repeat: "Where, where? Over the Malvinas? And what is there to do? There's also cold. " Such a response indicates at least of two circumstances: First, that took place about 15 years ago, the Anglo-Argentine conflict over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) somehow left in our minds is extremely bright trail, and secondly, that the Maldives has relatively long with a reputation as one of the most luxurious and exotic resorts in the world, still remain for most Russians, terra incognita. You can make one more conclusion: geography still far from being the most useless of school subjects, and planning, for example, your holiday would be very worthwhile to know that between Malvina – a group of rocky islands, lost in the cold pre-Antarctic waters off the coast of Argentina, and the Maldives – Coral archipelago, located in the Indian Ocean 640 miles southwest of Ceylon, almost on the equator, there is nothing in common except the names of chords. Is that the both territories are included in the British Commonwealth. First, as overseas possessions of Great Britain, and the second as an independent state – Republic of Maldives.

The state is, well, quite unusual. Start with the fact that 99.669% of the territory of the Maldivian sea. When the flies to International Airport "Hulule", there is phantasmagoric sense that the plane sits right in the ocean waves because the airport is surrounded by water runway with tiny terminal building. More than two, maximum three planes simultaneously in the "Hulule" simply does not fit. Prolivchikom narrow island, which was built "Hulule", separated from the relatively large, the Maldivian scale of the island Male, the capital of the same name is located where the island republic. The entire Maldivian land (ie 0.331% of the country) consists of 19 coral atolls, combining 1,196 islands.