Maldives: Dutch version of a map of the Maldives (1750) by French cartographer, Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 - 1772)

Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 – 21 March 1772) was a French hydrographer, geographer, and member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes.

Asia's smallest and least-known nation, the Republic of Maldives, lies scattered from north to south across a 750-kilometre sweep of the Indian Ocean 500 kilometres south-west of Sri Lanka. More than 1000 islands, together with innumerable banks and reefs, are grouped in a chain of nineteen atolls which extends from a point due west of Colombo to just south of the equator.

Copyright:

Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Credit:

Pictures From History