Utheemu (Haa Alifu Atoll)

Utheemu is an inhabited island in Haa Alif Atoll administrative division and geographically part of the Thiladhummathi Atoll in the north of the Maldives. It is an island-level administrative constituency in upper north province, governed by the Utheemu Island Council. The island is the birthplace of Mohamed Thakurufaanu, who with his brothers and his companions fought an eight-year long war to drive out the Portuguese invaders who occupied the Maldives from 1558 to 1573. Utheemu Ganduvaru is the wooden palace in which the nation’s revered hero Mohamed Thakurufaanu lived and grew up evokes more than any other existing building, the lifestyle of the rich, centuries ago.