How It's Built: The Maldives' Artificial Islands
The islands of the Maldives are a real-life oasis of relaxation, natural beauty, and comfort. Although these tranquil islands were always a tropical paradise for their inhabitants, they remained untouched by tourism until relatively recently. One of the most interesting and innovative things to come from this boom in tourism is the artificial islands that are being created in this oasis.
Before we take a dive into how these man-made, beautiful artificial islands are being constructed, let's take a moment to understand the history and background of the Maldives.
Table of Contents
- Where & What Is The Maldives?
- How Were The Maldives' Islands Formed?
- When Were The First Resorts & The Artificial Islands Built?
- How Are These Artificial Islands Built?
- Visiting the Maldives
Where & What Is The Maldives?
Technically, "the Maldives" refers to the many islands that make up the nation of the Republic of Maldives. Most people, however, just refer to the whole nation as the Maldives. That said, the Maldives is an independent island country in the north-central Indian Ocean, just southwest of the coasts of India and Sri Lanka.
This nation is comprised of about 1,200 different islands that span more than 510 miles (820 km) from north to south and 80 miles (130 km) from east to west. This is because the Maldives are formed by 26 natural atolls, which will be explained in more detail later, built up from the crowns of a submerged ancient volcanic mountain range. All the islands in the Maldives are essentially at sea-level height, not rising any more than 6m higher than the ocean. This technically makes the Maldives the flattest country in the world.
The capital and most populous city of the Maldives is Malé, which is located on the southern edge of North Malé Atoll. Historically, Malé has been referred to as "King's Island, as this is usually where the ruler of the nation resided. Almost 1/3 of the nation's population lives in the capital, which is around 133,000 people.
How Were The Maldives' Islands Formed?
As mentioned above, the Islands of the Maldives were naturally built up from the crowns of a submerged ancient volcanic mountain range. But how exactly does this happen?
A volcanic mountain range was naturally formed in the middle of the Indian Ocean. These individual mountains, which eventually resembled islands, then became surrounded by naturally occurring coral reefs that wholly bordered them. Then, through the process of global warming, glacial melting, or island subsidence, the volcanic mountains began to sink into the ocean while the coral reef that surrounded it remained above.
This remaining coral reef was ring-shaped since it bordered the circumference of the volcanic island, thus forming what is known as an atoll. From there, assorted detritus and dead coral pilled up inside the coral ring and filled the void where the volcanic island used to be, forming a shallow lagoon. The remaining ring of coral reef, or atoll, continued to grow over time, breaking the surface of the water and eventually forming a ring of above-sea land. The ring of land then broke at various weak points, being flooded over by water. These breaks in the ring of land then form multiple islands, all assorted in the ring shape we can see today.
When Were The First Resorts & The Artificial Islands Built?
Skipping over several millennia from when the islands of the Maldives first formed to when the first resorts were built, we find ourselves in the 1970s, the birth of Maldivian tourism.
In 1971, a travel agent from Italy named George Corbin became aware of the Maldives in his pursuit of finding pristine islands where he could bring Italians for vacation. By chance, Corbin found himself in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he ran into a junior with the Maldives Embassy, named Ahmed Naseem. After hearing about the island nation from Naseem, Corbin decided to take a look for himself. Upon his first visit to Malé, Corbin fell in love with the location and immediately vowed to return with more guests.
In 1972, Corbin returned with the first ever guests to the Maldives, and they stayed in three small houses in Malé. Corbin promised to bring more tourists if the locals could find them somewhere to stay. This was when, in 1972, the first ever resort in the Maldives was built: Kurumba.
Over the decades, the number of tourists in the Maldives continued to rise. From the small batch of tourists in 1972, the Maldives saw 1.5 million tourists in 2016. Currently, around 130 resorts are located in the different atolls of the Maldives.
Due to the rise in tourist popularity in combination with the scarcity of land, the Maldivian government along with foreign investors began to build artificial islands in order to create more real estate and business opportunities. In 1991, the first artificial island of the Maldives was built: Thilafushi. This man-made island was actually created to be used as a landfill since the population of Malé was growing rapidly and a waste management solution was necessary in order to continue expanding.
Another early artificial island in the Maldives is Hulhumalé. Since the capital city of Malé began to run out of space for more citizens to live in, the creation of Hulhumalé was a chance for the Maldivian government and foreign investors to create more livable city space. Rising sea levels are also cited as another reason for the creation of Hulhumalé and the other artificial islands of the Maldives.
Located only about 1.3km (0.8mi) from Malé, Hulhumalé has an area of about 4 sq km (1.5 sq mi), making it the fourth largest island in the Maldives. As of December 2019, the island has a population of more than 50,000 and it's planned to house as many as 240,000 by the mid-2020s.
Some other notable man-made islands in the Maldives include; Crossroads (home of the Hard Rock Hotel Maldives), Waldorf Astoria Ithaafushi, Riu Atoll, and the Fari Islands (home of the Ritz-Carlton Maldives).
How Are These Artificial Islands Built?
Land reclamation is popular in the Maldives for creating new resorts and infrastructure. The process by which land is reclaimed in the Maldives is as interesting as it is complex.
First, a shallow, lagoon-like area of submerged coral reef is chosen for the land reclamation process. This is important to mention because it's easier for an island to be artificially created when the underwater floor it's being built on is already quite shallow.
Once an appropriate area of coral reef is chosen, the island's border is traced out by means of installing a cofferdam that encloses the shallow coral land. A cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow for the enclosed area to be pumped out dry. The seawater is then drained from within the enclosed border of the new island. In some cases, the Maldives' artificial islands don't even need to be drained because they are being built on a very shallow coral platform that can just be filled with sand.
After the enclosed border is built and dried, the new island is created by pumping sand from the seafloor onto a submerged coral platform through a process known as dredging. Dredging is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of bodies of water through the use of dredgers. In the case of the Maldivian islands, suction dredgers are used since they are primarily installed on large ships and can suck up the surrounding ocean floor and be pumped out into the enclosed artificial islands with a large tube.
Now that there's sand pilled up onto the dry land that's enclosed via the cofferdam, heavy equipment that's been carefully transported onto the job site is used to spread out the material and create the actual base of the island. Excavators, bulldozers, soil compactors, and articulated dump trucks were all used together to evenly and properly disperse the sand throughout the new island. A layer of large rocks, referred to as guard rocks, is placed around the shoreline of the islands to protect them from harsh waves that could potentially destroy the artificial land.
From there, the actual resorts, other buildings, and vegetation can be built and installed on the islands to give them a natural feel.
Visiting the Maldives
Although by square feet the Maldives is a smaller nation, there's still lots to see. When planning a trip to the Maldives, make sure to do your research about which resort is most suitable for you. Check out the Maldives' official tourism website to get more information about your future visit.
