Lhaviyani Atoll

Lhaviyani Atoll (Faadhippolhu) sits in the northern Maldives, about 150 km north of Malé. The atoll is sparsely developed compared to the central Maldives clusters, with a handful of resort islands and the inhabited island of Naifaru as the administrative centre. The outer reef drops sharply into deep Indian Ocean water, and the tidal exchange through the atoll channels produces strong currents over the reef slopes and through the thilas — submerged pinnacles — that define Lhaviyani's dive sites. The Kuredu Express dive, on the outer reef wall near Kuredu Island, is one of the Maldives' better-known drift dives precisely because the tidal flow runs reliably and predictably through the channel on the ebb. The lagoon flat behind the outer reef is shallow enough to walk across at low water, and kite surfing is a practical activity in the flat-water sections. The Indian Ocean tidal regime is mixed semidiurnal, spring range 0.8 to 1.2 m. Predictions come from Open-Meteo Marine (gridded model, ±45 min / ±0.2–0.3 m).