“There are 1,190 islands in the maldives. Could be a whole lot more. Someone has yet to come up with a

defintion of island.There are islands who peek in the morning and get washed off later in the day!While none of these islands rise above one or two meters...

the bottom is even a deeper mystery.They cover an area, roughly equal to that of UK!

Contrary to western belief, these islands do not float on water... "like swans on lakes".

So how on Earth?Darwin must have proposed a theory.The theory of coral island formation:

"These could have been leftover fragments from a huge mountain.A volcanic mountain erupted here, and

burned away to the bottom of the ocean... leaving thousands of these tall pinacles to form islands.”

Ahmed Zahid

Call me what you want. But I see two sides of a controversial country... daily, on a first hand basis.

To some people it is paradise, and pay exorbitant prices just to visit and be here for a while.

For others it is a living hell... run by an oppressive regime. It has poverty, rising crime, and a growing fear of evacuation because of a predicted rise in sea levels.

Go figure!

Don't ask me to analyze, or question on how I feel about this place just yet, because I am busy gathering evidence.

For the time being though... I am uploading what I see, for you to see.

Ahmed Zahid

ahmedzahid1@hotmail.com