Malé (Dhivehi: Malé) is the capital of the Maldives and one of the smallest in the world, too small to have its own airport. The airport in the Maldives is built on the adjacent island of Hulhule. It has an area of about 1.96 square kilometers and 248,000 inhabitants (2019).
Dazzling white coral reefs and doors and windows painted mostly blue and green form a strong color difference, and the houses are usually built high and narrow, supposedly to avoid demonic invasions, and because they were once under British jurisdiction, some buildings have a strong British atmosphere. There are as many as 600 taxis in this pocket capital, and the most common means of transport used by locals in Malé besides motorcycles is taxis.
About 670 kilometers southwest of Sri Lanka, Male Island is the trade center of the Maldives, with air lines and sea routes connecting Sri Lanka and India. With a population of about 248,000 people, almost 40% of the country's population, male island is the world's smallest capital and the most crowded capital in the world, and the people of this island country aspire to urban life. It is the economic, political and cultural centre of the Maldives and a focal point for state and private groups. This island is the epitome of the Maldivian archipelago.
Panoramic view of Male, one glance to the head
Malé Island covers an area of about 1.96 square kilometers, how big is it? The area of the Summer Palace in Beijing is 3 square kilometers, and the area of Male Island is only two-thirds the size of the Summer Palace, which is the capital of a country, which can be said to be very small.
Macau is known for its population density, but it only has 20,000 people per square kilometer, and Mumbai is India's most populous city with 33,000 people per square kilometer, which is already congested. But compared with Malé, it is not even a fraction, and the 1.96 square kilometers of Male Island has crammed into 248,000 people, an average of 120,000 people per square kilometer, which is how crowded the city is.
Due to the small size of the land, Male can only fight for space to the sky, so the city buildings are high and thin, and the entire island is covered with high-rise buildings, full of people, and the bird's eye view from the air is very spectacular.
The widest road in the city can only accommodate two cars side by side, all kinds of alleys are narrow, people travel mostly by motorcycles and taxis, there are no buses in the city, there are only 600 taxis, and the price is 30 Lafia (equivalent to 13.5 yuan) to go to any place in the city. Because the place is too small, there is no space to build an airport, there is no way, had to build the capital airport on a neighboring island, connected by a cross-sea bridge, this bridge is still built with Chinese aid, only opened to traffic in 2018.
Male is located in the tropics, is a beautiful sea town, the climate is long summer and winterless, warm and humid, the environment is idyllic and beautiful, the island is surrounded by white coral reefs, the city can see tall and tall coconut trees everywhere, the streets are planted with a variety of tropical exotic flowers, the buildings here are painted colorful, bright colors, all kinds of traditional buildings are lined up, very bright, Although the buildings in Malé are dense, but neat and orderly, and the colors are diverse, in the blue sea and blue sky, there is a unique style.
The Maldives is famous for its coral reefs and sunny beaches, known as the "pearl of the Indian Ocean", more than a thousand tropical islands scattered on the blue sea, like pearls embedded in the Indian Ocean, it is the world's famous tourist resort, known as "paradise on earth".