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Maldives COUNTRY
Formal Name: Republic of Maldives.
Short Name: Maldives.
Term for Citizens: Maldivian(s).
Capital: Male.
Date of Independence: July 26, 1965 (from
Britain).
GEOGRAPHY
Size: Approximately 298 square kilometers.
Topography: Includes some 1,200 coral islands
grouped
in double chain of twenty-seven atolls. Most atolls are
ringshaped coral reefs supporting five to ten inhabited
islands and
twenty to sixty uninhabited islands. Average size of
islands one
to two kilometers and height of 1.5 meters above sea
level.
Climate: Relatively high humidity but sea
breezes stir
air. Dry season of northeast monsoon December through
March;
rainy season of southwest monsoon April through October.
Annual
rainfall 2,540 millimeters in north, 3,810 millimeters in
south.
Data as of August 1994
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