Maldives Quiz: Test Your Knowledge About the Pearl of the Indian Ocean 🌴

Tourism is the main engine of the Maldivian economy (resorts, diving, hospitality). Fishing is the traditional second pillar, but tourism provides the largest share of GDP and foreign earnings.

Islam (Sunni Islam) is the state and official religion of the Maldives. The constitution and laws are strongly influenced by Islamic principles; historically the islands converted to Islam in the medieval period.

The Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India and Sri Lanka. Its atolls stretch across hundreds of kilometres of the Indian Ocean.

“Maldivian” is the national/flag carrier brand (operated by Island Aviation Services Ltd.). It serves domestic and regional routes and is recognized as the country’s airline.

The Maldives was predominantly Buddhist until the medieval period; tradition and historical sources place the conversion of the Maldives to Islam around 1153 AD (12th century), after which Islamic sultanates ruled the islands for centuries.

The Maldives is world-famous for luxury island resorts, over-water villas, scuba-diving and snorkeling — high-end beach tourism is the dominant form of tourism and a major source of foreign exchange.

Besides tourism, fishing (especially tuna fishing) is a vital traditional industry for the Maldives — important for domestic food security and exports.

The Maldives is a member of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), the regional body for South Asian countries.

The Maldives is famous for underwater attractions — notably the Ithaa Undersea Restaurant (Conrad Maldives Rangali Island) and luxury underwater villas such as The Muraka — making “underwater hotel/restaurant” the correct choice.

The Maldives is made up of roughly 1,192 coral islands grouped into 26 natural atolls. Only a few hundred of those islands are permanently inhabited; the rest are resort islands, uninhabited islets, or reefs.

Mohamed Amin Didi served as the Maldives’ first President (taking office 1 January 1953). His presidency was brief (he was deposed in 1953) but he is recorded as the first person to hold the presidential title in Maldivian history.

Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in the Maldives — widely played at island, atoll and national levels. The country has an organized league structure and an active national team.

Malé is the capital and largest city of the Maldives, located on Malé Island. It is the political, economic and cultural center of the country and one of the most densely populated capital cities in the world.

The official currency is the Maldivian rufiyaa (often shortened to “rufiyaa”), ISO code MVR. The rufiyaa is subdivided into 100 laari.

The Maldives is governed as a presidential republic: the President is both head of state and head of government, elected under the national constitution.

The Maldives is the world’s lowest-lying country: its average ground elevation is about 1.5 meters (roughly 4.9 feet) above sea level. That extreme low elevation is why the country is particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise.

The Maldives gained independence from the United Kingdom on 26 July 1965 (ending its status as a British protectorate). The agreement establishing independence was signed in 1965 and the Maldives became a fully sovereign state thereafter.

The Maldives is frequently nicknamed the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean” (or referred to poetically as a “pearl necklace” of islands) in travel and tourism literature because of its many small, pearl-like islands scattered across turquoise seas.

Geographically the Maldives sits in the Indian Ocean; to the west/northwest the broader body of water is commonly referred to as the Arabian Sea, while the Bay of Bengal lies to the east/northeast of India and Sri Lanka.

Mas Huni is a traditional Maldivian dish (often eaten at breakfast) made from shredded smoked tuna, grated coconut and chopped onions, usually served with flatbread called roshi.

Dhivehi is written in the Thaana script, a right-to-left script developed in the Maldives and still used today for official and everyday writing.

Mid-2025 estimates put the Maldives population at around ~550,000.

Huvadhu (Huvadhoo) Atoll is one of the country’s largest atolls and holds the record for the most islands inside a single atoll — it’s enormous in terms of island count and lagoon area. (Geographic classification of “largest” can vary by whether you count area vs. number of islands; Huvadhu is notable for the island count and large lagoon.)

Because of its very low elevation and small land area, the Maldives is highly vulnerable to sea-level rise, coastal erosion and other impacts of climate change.

Dhivehi (sometimes spelled Divehi) is the national and official language. It’s an Indo-Aryan language written in the Thaana script and has borrowed vocabulary from Arabic, Urdu, Malayalam and English.