Located just southwest of the southern tip of India lies one of the only countries in the world consisting solely of coral atolls.

Unlike similar countries which are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this country has a location and proximity which has given it a unique history and it also faces a unique set of problems given its geography and geology.

Learn more about the Maldives, its past, present and future, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. airlines. The Republic of the Maldives is located in the Indian Ocean, about 430 kilometers at its closest point

from India and 700 kilometers from Sri Lanka.

It's an archipelago of 26 coral atolls that stretch in an approximate north-south line over a range of about 800 kilometers

with 1,194 islands.

Even though the country stretches over such a wide area, the total amount of land is only about 300

square kilometers or 120 square miles. Or to put it into perspective, it's

slightly smaller than the nation of Malta. There are only four countries in the world that consist

entirely of coral atolls, and I've previously done episodes on the other three.

Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands.

The Maldives, which shares many traits with those other countries, also had a very different

history due to the fact that it's relatively close to a major populated landmass, and not in a remote area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Before I continue, I want to reiterate the reality of living on a coral atoll.

Many people see photos of palm trees and white sand beaches and think that such a place must be Paradise.

Indeed, the photos look really nice, and in fact they are great places to visit.

But think for a moment about what a coral atoll is, and you can reference the past episode I did on Charles Darwin's theory of coral atoll formation.

Atolls are the

result of former volcanoes that have subsided and the coral that grew around the volcano. When the volcano totally sinks below the surface, what's left is a ring of coral.

The islands are made almost entirely out of calcium carbonate, which is also what the white sands on the atolls are made out of.

This means that there is literally nothing else in terms of mineral resources.

No iron, no copper, no anything. Oh and fresh water is

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