Maldives - Nation of Islands Sun, sand and sea, a thousand ‘Robinson Crusoe’ islands, massive lagoons with different depths and infinite shades of blue and turquoise, dazzling underwater coral gardens. About 1192 officially recognised islands are spread out in a vast area of over 90,000 sq.km, which extends for 754 km in a latitudinal direction and a 118 km longitudinal direction. The population amounts to about 245.000 inhabitants, about 55.000 are living in the captial of Male. The spoken language is Dhivehi. The Islamic religion dates back to 1153. The first contact that the visitor has with the archipelago of Maldives, takes place at the HULULE International Airport, which was re-opened after explansion in 1981, enabling large aircrafts to land safely on the extensive Island. Generally speaking the climate of the Maldives can be described as warm throughout the year and is determined by the monsoons. The average air temperaturs oscillate between 27 and 32°C. The average watertemperature is 27°C. The ring-shaped arrangement of the madreporic reef sit´s on volcanic origin, due to it sinking during the interglacical period. The development of coral-producing colonies, in fact, could only take place where the presence of dissolved oxygen and of sunlight are greater, for which reason the polyps were obliged to progressively raise their constructions along the old perimeter of the submerged island. The Maldives are recognised to be one of the finest dive spots in the world, with over 700 species of marine life, which can be found in it´s faszinating divingworld.