Laccadive High Sea

Between the Laccadives and the Maldives lies Minicoy, a coral atoll separated from the islands to its north by the Nine Degree Channel. The island chain was known to ancient sailors and later lay on routes connecting South Asia with the Middle East. Portuguese interest in coconut fibre brought intervention in the late fifteenth century, but islanders expelled them in 1545. The inhabited islands subsequently came under the ruling family of Kannur on the Malabar coast.