Maldives Islands lie scattered across the equator to the South West of Sri Lanka. Formed over the 2000 kms Laccadives - Chagos ridge, the Maldivian islands stretch from the North to South for over 820 kms and from East to West for over 120 kms. In total Maldives covers an area of approximately 90,000km2. Only 1% of this is land with the rest being water.The Maldives lie just north of the equator in the Indian ocean, to the southwest from the southern tip of India.