The Hidden Gem of the Maldives: Huvadu Atoll
Posted By Sara-Lise Haith on 30 July 2003
In my previous article, Coral Bleaching in the Maldives, I spoke about atolls and dive sites where most of the divers who have visited Maldives, have discovered already. Those are generally North and South Male, Lhaviyani, Ari, Mulaku, and Baa Atolls.
The Maldives has revealed another well kept secret. Huvadu (also known as Suvadiva) Atoll is the deepest atoll in the Maldives (inside reef 90 metres deep). It is also the second largest atoll in the world, next to Kwajalein, of the Marshall Islands.
The history behind the southern atolls, Huvadu and also Addu, goes back to British, Portuguese and Dutch influences. Research indicates, however, that the Maldives lay on the maritime trading routes of early Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus Valley civilizations, as early as 2,000 BC. It is believed that early sun-worshipping seafarers, called the Redin, first settled on the islands. Even today, many mosques in Maldives face the sun and not Mecca, lending credence to this theory.
The interest of Middle Eastern peoples in Maldives resulted from its
strategic location and its abundant supply of cowrie shells, a form of
currency that was widely used throughout Asia and parts of the East African
coast since ancient times. Middle Eastern seafarers had just begun to take
over the Indian Ocean trade routes in the tenth century A.D. and found
Maldives to be an important link in those routes. The importance of the
Arabs as traders in the Indian Ocean by the twelfth century A.D. may partly
explain why the last Buddhist king of Maldives converted to Islam in the
year 1153.
Beginning in the 1950s, political history in Maldives was largely influenced by the British military presence in the islands. Britain obtained permission to reestablish its wartime airfield on Gan in the southernmost Addu Atoll, with a 100-year lease, which was later shortened. Then, on July 26, 1965, Maldives gained independence under an agreement signed with Britain. The British government retained the use of the Gan and Hitaddu facilities. In a national referendum in March 1968, Maldivians abolished the sultanate and established a republic.
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