Male is the capital and most populous city in the Republic of Maldives. The city is geographically located at the southern edge of North Malé Atoll (Kaafu Atoll). Administratively, it is a city-class constituency and is governed by the Malé City Council. Traditionally it was the King's Island, from where the ancient Maldive Royal dynasties ruled and where the palace was located. The city was then called “Mahal”. Formerly it was a walled city surrounded by fortifications and gates (doroshi).

A girl watches as Saen Dao, an eight-year-old female asian elephant, and her mahout perform underwater during a show at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi south of Bangkok on June 1, 2017. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP Photo)

Men slide in the mud during the Boryeong Mud Festival at Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, South Korea, Saturday, July 22, 2017. The 20th annual mud festival features mud wrestling and mud sliding. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

A woman poses for photographs with traditional side dish Kimchi during the Seoul Kimchi Festival in central Seoul, South Korea, November 4, 2016. Kimchi made with cabbage, other vegetables and chili sauce and kimchi is the most popular traditional food in Korea. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

A woman tour skates on the frozen lake of Orlangen, south of Stockholm, Sweden, on December 23, 2016. Tour skating is recreational long distance ice skating on natural ice particularly popular in the Nordic countries. (Photo by Tobias Roestlund/AFP Photo/TT News Agency)

An employee controls the arms of a manned biped walking robot “METHOD-2” during a demonstration in Gunpo, South Korea, December 27, 2016. It stands 13-feet (3,96 m) tall, weighs 1.3 tons and wields a pair of 286-pound (129,73 kg), motion-tracking metal arms. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

Gold medalists Kikkan Randall and Jessica Diggins of the United States dancing during the medal ceremony for Cross-Country Skiing – Ladies' Team Sprint Free on day 13 of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Medal Plaza on February 22, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Photo by Eric Gaillard/Reuters)

South Vietnamese forces escort suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem (also known as Bay Lop) on a Saigon street February 1, 1968, early in the Tet Offensive. Moments later, Lem was executed by Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police. (Photo by Eddie Adams/AP Photo)