Maldives hotels collection

Much of the white sand of the Maldives has passed through the gut of parrotfish, which graze the coral and leave its limestone behind as powder. The islands are made of it, and barely clear the water, set on their rings of reef. In Hanifaru Bay, in Baa Atoll, manta rays gather when the monsoon sweeps the plankton in. Out in the lagoons, sandbanks surface, bare; by the next season they will have moved.