Hoarafushi

Hoarafushi is one of the larger inhabited islands of Haa Alif Atoll, at the far north of the Maldives, sitting within the country's largest fringing reef system. The island takes its name from the great frigatebird - hoara in Dhivehi - once commonly seen there.

Its community has deep roots: settlers from the nearby island of Huvahandhoo established Hoarafushi roughly 300 years ago, and by the 1912 census it was already the fourth-largest locality in the Maldives. It remains a substantial local-island community today.