Walking down the street, you always wondered how the streets are named in Male’ City. Distinctively given a name for every street, avenue and alley, the naming system of Male’ streets may seem rather random. However, most of these names carry their baggage of history.

In Maldives “Magu” translates to any road or pathway that connects any point. However, usually in naming, Magu is suffixed in reference to a street (urban large roads). Likewise, avenues (a perpendicular road that connects two parallel streets) are suffixed with the word “Hingun”. While this may not be applicable to many roads in Male’, it is very excusable as roads in Male’ are awfully narrow and unplanned, which unfortunately makes the systemic nomenclature of titling roads complex. Indeed, the narrow suburban alleys are always known as “Goalhi” in the Maldives.

With names of flowers, house titles, dynasties, kings and queens, the streets of Male’ are one to look out for. While most of these road names are random, some of the very distinctive roads got their names through history. The long street that connects from the Eastern bridge point to the Western Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Buruzu Magu used to be the Southern outskirts of Male’ City before the reclamation. During the wars, bastions and forts were built around Male’City. The fact that a distinctive Buruzu could be on this street could ultimately have titled this road as Buruzu Magu. Likewise, Medhuziyaaraiy Magu earned its name as the tomb of Abul Barakat known as Medhuziyaaraiy is situated in the middle of this street.

The history behind some names is given literally like Lonuziyaaraiy Magu or Rahdhebai Magu. “Lonu” (Salt/Sea) “Ziyaaraiy” (Visit/Greet) is given to the road that leads to Raalhugandu Point, where all the large Eastern waves crash. While Rahdhebai translating to Island-Halving is given to the road that divided the original Male’ island area from North to South.

In a country where life is so current and hectic, we fail to see the tiny little things that have depth and meaning of different cultures. Even a street name can lead to endless stories of linguistics and history; the true interests of a cultured marvel.