Maldives

A purpose-built public beach on the western shore of the capital Malé, created in the 1990s by constructing a breakwater to enclose a safe swimming area with imported white sand; a rare urban recreational space in one of the world's most densely built capitals.

One of the most famous dive sites in the Indian Ocean, located on the outer edge of North Malé Atoll; named for the distinctive curved shape of its submerged plateau and celebrated for the extraordinary density and variety of its marine life including large schools of batfish, giant barracuda and grey reef sharks.

A coral-rubble causeway connecting the islands of Gan and Maarandhoo in Addu Atoll, the southernmost atoll of the Maldives; built during the British naval occupation of Gan (1940-1976), it is the most tangible physical legacy of the atoll's twentieth-century history and offers a strikingly different landscape from the resort stereotypes of the Maldives.

The oldest mosque in the Maldives, built from coral stone in 1656 in the capital Malé; its finely carved coral facade and gilded minaret are the finest expression of Maldivian Islamic architecture.

The main fish market on the waterfront of the Maldivian capital Malé, where the daily catch of tuna and other species arrives by boat before dawn and is sold by auction through the morning; the most direct evidence of the fishing industry that underpins the Maldivian economy and food culture.

The archetypal Maldivian resort structure: a thatched-roof bungalow built on concrete stilts over the lagoon, with a private deck descending directly into the shallow turquoise water and a glass floor panel in the living area. The overwater bungalow is the defining architectural symbol of Maldivian tourism and one of the most photographed accommodation types in the world.