The Maldives is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. It’s made up of 26 atolls and is southwest of India and Sri Lanka. Even though it’s spread out over a big area, it’s the smallest Asian country because it has a small population and not a lot of land.
The highest point is only 8 feet above the ground, and on average, the land is about 5 feet above the water. This makes the Maldives the lowest country in the world. People there mostly fish and have a growing tourism industry.
A sad event happened on December 26, 2004, when the Maldives had a really big wave called a tsunami because of a big earthquake in the Indian Ocean. This wave caused a lot of damage, and many places were affected.
Some islands had to be evacuated, and a few were even destroyed. The disaster cost a lot of money, about 62% of all the money the country makes in a year. Many people, both from the Maldives and other countries, lost their lives.
But because the islands aren’t very high, the wave didn’t cause as much damage as it could have.
The Maldives has a lot of different kinds of sea life. There are beautiful coral reefs, deep parts of the sea, and places like mangroves and wetlands. In the water, you can find many different animals, like different types of coral, fish, sea turtles, whales, dolphins, and many more.
