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Gnaviyani Atoll Gnaviyani Atoll
Atoll Summary
Administrative name Gnaviyani Atoll
Atoll name Fuvammulah
Location 0° 15' S and 0° 20' S
Letter R
Abbreviation Gn (ޏ)
Capital Fuvammulah
Population 10,270
No. Fuvammulah or Fua Mulaku ( Dhivehi: ފުވައްމުލައް is a large single Island in the Maldives. of Islands 1
Inhabited Islands 1
Atoll Chief Ahmed Moosa[1]
Inhabited Islands
Fuvammulah
Uninhabited Islands


Resort islands, Airports and Industrial islands are also considered uninhabited

Gnaviyani Atoll is one of the administrative divisions of the Maldives. Fuvammulah or Fua Mulaku ( Dhivehi: ފުވައްމުލައް is a large single Island in the Maldives. Geographically the Maldives are formed by a number of natural Atolls plus a few islands and isolated reefs which form a pattern from North to South The Maldives ( or, or Maldive Islands) officially the Republic of Maldives, is an Island nation consisting of a group of atolls stretching It corresponds to the island known as Fuvammulah in the local language and Fua Mulaku in the International Navigational Charts and by H. C. P. Bell, the first person who made serious research on the Maldives. Fuvammulah or Fua Mulaku ( Dhivehi: ފުވައްމުލައް is a large single Island in the Maldives. Harry Charles Purvis Bell (1851-1937 was a British civil servant a commissioner in the Ceylon Civil Service. Surfacewise this is the smallest administrative unit in the Maldives, situated in the Equatorial Channel (Addu Kandu) between Huvadhu Atoll and Addu Atoll. Addu Kandu, Dv. for "Addu Channel" is the traditional name of the broad channel between Huvadhu Atoll and Addu Atoll in the south of Maldives Huvadu ( H C P Bell) or Huvadhoo (also called Suvadiva) is sometimes referred to as the largest atoll of the Maldives. Addu Atoll (local administrative code Seenu) is the southernmost Atoll of the Maldives. Fua Mulaku is not a true (or natural) atoll, for it consists of only one island, which is, however, one of the largest islands in the Maldives, with a land area of 4,2 km²[2]. Fua Mulaku was traditionally divided into nine villages (clockwise from the northern end): Dhadimago, Hōdhado, Mālegan, Dūndigan, Funādo, Miskimmago, Dhashokubai, Mādhado and Diguvāndo. Dhadimago, is an administrative division of Fuvammulah, Maldives. Nowadays the number of villages has been reduced to eight, since the village of Dashokubai was merged with Miskimmago.

This island was depopulated and resettled twice in the last thousand years owing to lethal epidemics.

This island is known by geographers as Fua Mulaku. This name is more widely known. The origin of this name is in the ancient local poem 'Rashoveshi' where the name of the island in the first line is in the vocative: "Fua Mulaku nan ivē medu adi fen heu rashē. . . "

NOTE: Haa Alifu, Haa Dhaalu, Shaviyani, Noonu, Raa, Baa, etc. are code letters assigned to the present administrative divisions of the Maldives. They are not the proper names of these divisions or atolls. The order followed by the code letters is from North to South, beginning with the first letters of the Dhivehi alphabet. These code letters are not accurate from the geographical and cultural point of view. However, they have become popular among tourists and foreigners in the Maldives who find them easier to pronounce than the true atoll names in Dhivehi, (save a few exceptions, like Ari Atoll). The introduction of code-letter names has been a source of much puzzlement and misunderstandings, especially among foreigners. Many people have come to think that the code-letter of the administrative atoll is its new name and that it has replaced its geographical name. Under such circumstances it is hard to know which is the correct name to use.

Aware of the extent of this problem, Maldivian expert Mr. Ibrahim Luthfee wrote a book on Maldivian geography before he died. With this book, which is unfortunately available only in Divehi, the late Mr. Luthfee tried to clear a number of misconceptions that carelessly researched tourist publications have generalized even among Maldivians. Much of this article has been translated and adapted from his posthumous work.

References

Coordinates: 0°18′S 73°26′E / -0.3, 73.433

A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system.
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