Flag of Maldives

Flag origins

The Maldives flag has a red field, green central rectangle and white crescent. The government explains red as the sacrifice of heroes defending independence and sovereignty, green as peace and prosperity, and the crescent as Islam. An earlier plain-red flag gained a black-and-white hoist pattern, then the green panel and crescent. Full independence in 1965 removed the hoist stripes to produce the current design.

Flag story

The country comprises about 1,190 coral islands grouped into twenty-six atolls across roughly 820 kilometers north to south, but has only about 300 square kilometers of land. Most islands rise only one or two meters above sea level. Its combination of a wide maritime extent and very little low-lying land makes rising sea levels especially significant.

Editorial notes and references

Edited by ABELHA WORKS. The English text translates the administrator-edited Japanese description. Legends should be distinguished from documented history. General reference links do not substantiate every statement in the text.

• Maldives — general information on Wikipedia
• Japan MOFA: countries and regions (Japanese)

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