Maldives Elevation Map
Maldives’s highest point is Mount Villingili (Villingili Island) at 7 ft (2 m); its lowest is Indian Ocean at 0 ft (0 m); the mean elevation is 2 ft (0.5 m).
- Highest point📚
- 7 ft2 m
- A ~2.4 m rise on Villingili Island, Addu Atoll.
- Lowest point📚
- 0 ft0 m
- Sea level - the Indian Ocean surrounds every island.
- Mean elevation⚙
- 2 ft0.5 m
- Computed from the GLO-30 surface model over the islands.
- Median elevation⚙
- 2 ft0.5 m
- Half of Maldives lies below this height.
- Elevation range📚
- 7 ft2 m
- Barely a few metres - from sea level to about 2.4 m.
- Official area📚
- 115 mi²298 km²
- A vast, dispersed coral atoll nation on the equator.
- Forest cover📚
- 3.3%
- Thin island vegetation - coconut palms and scrub.
Highest and lowest points
The highest natural point of the Maldives is only about 2.4 m, on Villingili Island in the southern Addu Atoll - the lowest national high point on Earth. (Some sources quote 'Mount Villingili' as 5.1 m, but that figure appears to include a man-made golf-course mound.) The whole country is a flat coral archipelago with no hills.
source ↗Mount Villingili (Villingili Island)'s surveyed summit sits just outside the generalized Maldives boundary, so the highest fully in-territory land pixel in the model is 76 ft (23.1 m). The headline figure above is the surveyed elevation of the recognised national high point.
Maldives at a glance
The Maldives is the lowest-lying country on Earth: its average ground level is about 1.5 m and its highest natural point only ~2.4 m - lower than many people are tall.
source ↗Its ~2.4 m high point on Villingili is the lowest national high point of any country in the world.
source ↗Only 298 km2 of land is spread across about 90,000 km2 of ocean - one of the most dispersed countries anywhere.
source ↗The chain crosses the equator, so the Maldives has territory in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
source ↗No island in the country is longer than about 8 km, and none has a river - just small lakes and marshes.
source ↗Because the whole nation is so low, rising sea levels are an existential threat - a central concern of Maldivian climate diplomacy.
source ↗
Elevation profile of Maldives
The largest share of land, 22%, falls in the 1–1 m band, and 100% of the territory lies below 500 m (1,640 ft).
- 0–10 m (0–33 ft)100%
Highest peaks of Maldives
| Peak | Elevation | Range | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Villingili (Villingili Island)↗ | 7 ft2 m | Addu Atoll (south) | A rise of about 2.4 m, the highest natural point in the Maldives and the lowest national high point on Earth. |
| Hithadhoo dunes↗ | 7 ft2 m | Addu (Seenu) Atoll (south) | Coastal dunes on the northwest of Hithadhoo reach about 2.4 m - among the highest ground in the country. |
Terrain regions of Maldives
The Maldives is the lowest-lying country on Earth: its average ground level is about 1.5 m and its highest natural point only ~2.4 m - lower than many people are tall. ↗
The northern and central atolls
↗The bulk of the chain - dozens of ring-shaped coral atolls enclosing lagoons, stretching north of the equator and holding the capital Male near the centre.
The southern atolls
↗The atolls reaching across and just south of the equator, ending at Addu Atoll - whose Villingili Island holds the country's highest natural point (~2.4 m).
The coral atolls
the entire countryThe Maldives is built entirely of coral: 26 natural atolls - great ring-shaped reefs enclosing lagoons - made up of nearly 1,200 low islands. Each island averages only one to two square kilometres and lies barely 1-1.5 m above the sea, with no hills, rivers or true peaks. The islands' fresh water sits in thin lenses beneath the sand.
A dispersed equatorial chain
spread over ~90,000 km2 of seaThe atolls stretch about 750 km from north to south, crossing the equator near the southern end, so the Maldives has land in both hemispheres. Though its land is just 298 km2, it is scattered across roughly 90,000 km2 of ocean, making it one of the most spatially dispersed nations on Earth. The highest natural ground - about 2.4 m on Villingili in Addu Atoll - is the lowest national high point of any country.
City elevations in Maldives
| City | Population | Elevation |
|---|---|---|
| Fonadhoo | 1,773 | 20 ft6 m |
Elevation sampled at each city centre from the Copernicus GLO-30 model. Cities and population from GeoNames (CC-BY 4.0).
Maldives in comparison
Maldives's terrain rises 7 ft (2 m) from sea level to Mount Villingili (Villingili Island) — about 0% of the height of Mount Everest, the world's highest point at 29,032 ft (8,849 m).
- Sri Lanka's mean elevation is 574 ft — 573 ft higher; its high point, Pidurutalagala, reaches 8,281 ft (2,524 m), 8,274 ft above. Sri Lanka elevation map →
- Seychelles's mean elevation is 659 ft — 658 ft higher; its high point, Morne Seychellois, reaches 2,969 ft (905 m), 2,963 ft above. Seychelles elevation map →
Frequently asked questions
What is the highest point in the Maldives?
- Only about 2.4 m, a rise on Villingili Island in the southern Addu Atoll - the lowest national high point on Earth.
What is the average elevation of the Maldives?
- About 1.5 m - the Maldives is the world's lowest-lying country. The figure here is computed from the Copernicus GLO-30 model over the islands.
What is the lowest point in the Maldives?
- Sea level - the Indian Ocean surrounds every one of its coral islands.
Why is the Maldives so vulnerable to rising seas?
- Because it is the flattest, lowest country on Earth - average ground level about 1.5 m and a high point near 2.4 m - so even a small sea-level rise threatens the land.
How many islands does the Maldives have?
- Nearly 1,200 coral islands grouped into 26 natural atolls, spread across about 90,000 km2 of the Indian Ocean.
Is this a topographic, relief, contour, or elevation map of the Maldives?
- They describe the same thing - terrain height. This page renders the Maldives' actual elevation surface in interactive 3D (a relief or topographic view) and reports the elevation statistics computed from it; a contour map shows the same data as lines of equal height.
About this map
The terrain is rendered from the Copernicus GLO-30 digital elevation model (ESA), masked to the MDV-ADM0 boundary from geoBoundaries (gbOpen). Elevation statistics are computed directly from the model; peak names and researched facts are sourced and cited. See the methodology for the full pipeline.
Our area-weighted mean, computed from the Copernicus GLO-30 model, is 2 ft (0.5 m); the figure commonly cited elsewhere is 7 ft (2 m) (Wikipedia (average ground-level elevation about 1.5 m)). The Maldives has an average ground-level elevation of only about 1.5 m and a highest natural point near 2.4 m, making it the world's lowest-lying and flattest country; the page reports the figure computed from the Copernicus GLO-30 model over the islands.
Surveyed national figures: official area · forest cover · high point.
Rendered from Copernicus GLO-30 (ESA, 2021 release), boundaries from geoBoundaries. Generated 2026-07-20.