News Desk
MALE’ — The island council of Utheem in Haa Alif Atoll has invited bids to landscape and develop the grounds surrounding Utheem Palace, one of the most historically significant sites in the Maldives.
Utheem is a small island in the northernmost atoll of the Maldives, known above all else for one man. It is the birthplace of Sultan Mohamed Thakurufaanu Al-Auzam, known to Maldivians simply as Bodu Thakurufaanu, the warrior-statesman who led the campaign to expel Portuguese colonial forces from the Maldives in the sixteenth century. His victory in 1573, after years of resistance fought from boats and remote islands, ended fifteen years of Portuguese occupation and restored Maldivian sovereignty. He is revered as the greatest national hero in the country’s history, and his name is invoked in schools, on currency, in the name of the coast guard vessel that patrols Maldivian waters, and in the main road that circles Male’ itself.
The palace where he lived, built in the sixteenth century, still stands on Utheem. It is a low, coral-stone structure of the kind that defined Maldivian architecture before concrete arrived, its thick walls and shaded courtyards suited to the heat and the sea. The building and its surrounding grounds are considered among the most important heritage sites in the archipelago, a physical connection to a chapter of history that most Maldivians learn before they learn much else.
The council’s decision to develop and landscape the palace grounds reflects a broader effort to make heritage sites more accessible and presentable to both residents and visitors. Utheem receives a modest but steady flow of Maldivians who come specifically to see the palace and pay their respects to the memory of the man who once lived there.
