🇲🇻 Maldives
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Malé (population 245,000 in the city; the Greater Malé region of 600,000 is effectively the entire permanent population of the Maldives) is the capital of the Maldives — the most densely populated capital city on earth (the island of Malé is 5.8km² and holds 245,000 people — a density of 65,000 people per km², 10 times denser than Manhattan), the lowest-lying country on earth (the average ground elevation of the Maldives is 1.2m above sea level — the country most at risk from sea-level rise due to climate change; the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that the Maldives will be uninhabitable by 2100 under moderate emissions scenarios), and one of the most extraordinary travel destinations on earth (the Maldives is the most successful single-product tourism economy in the world: 98% of government revenue comes from tourism; the overwater villa (bungalow built on stilts above the turquoise lagoon water) is the most copied luxury tourism product in the world — invented in the Maldives in 1973 at the first Maldives tourist resort (Kurumba Village)). Malé is a city of stark contrasts: the Islamic architecture of the Grand Friday Mosque (the largest mosque in the Maldives — capacity 5,000; the golden dome is the most visible landmark in Malé), the National Museum in the former Sultan's Palace (the only sultanate palace in the Maldives), the vibrant local fish market (the largest fish market in the Maldives), and the extraordinary marine life visible from the harbourfront. Best months: November–April (the dry season).