Male

The capital city of Male at 1.7 km long and 1 km wide doesn’t show any signs of a 1400 years old Buddhist past. Although 35 mosques can be found in this seemingly expeditiously built colorful settlement, vestiges of the bygone era can still be traced to the most famous and tallest monument of Male—the Old Friday Mosque that was built on a Buddhist Temple. In the 12th century A.D, Abu al Barakat visited Maldives which was then a Buddhist regime (may be due to its proximity to Sri Lanka). He convinced the Sultan to embrace Islam and the rest is history. The mosque is supposedly built on Buddhist temple and has been renovated a couple of times, the last being in 1656. Doors and windows made out of coral adorn this venerable structure. The solitary museum in the country is an unimpressive structure made up of steel and glass (gift from China under a bi-lateral agreement) and was completed in 2010. However, the impressive part about this two-floored building is the display of famous lacquer work boxes, age old cannons, broken pieces of Buddhist and Hindu idols, images of political events and, most importantly, a replica of the pen that was used the sign the ‘Declaration of Independence’ from the British Empire.