Gan (Laamu Atoll)

Gan is an inhabited island in Laamu Atoll administrative division and geographically part of Haddhunmathi Atoll in the south of the Maldives. It is an island-level administrative constituency in South Central province, governed by the Gan Island Council.

Gan Island, unlike all the other islands of the Maldives has three villages distinctly separate form each other. Although bokkura or small boats were used to travel between the villages in the past, today bicycles motorcycles and other motorised vehicles use the link road that runs through the island vegetation.

Gamu Haiytheli on the southeast side of the island proves the existence of a much earlier civilisation. The monument stands 11m high and is about 50m in diameter. Archeologist H.C.P. Bell, who visited the mounds early in the 20th century, discovered the broken face of an enormous Buddha under the summit of the mound which he estimated had an original height of four and a half meters.