Spratly Islands
Disputed archipelago in the South China Sea
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The Spratly Islands (Filipino: Kapuluan ng Kalayaan; simplified Chinese: 南沙群岛; traditional Chinese: 南沙群島; pinyin: Nánshā Qúndǎo; Malay: Kepulauan Spratly; Vietnamese: Quần đảo Trường Sa) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed of islands, islets, cays, and more than 100 reefs, sometimes grouped in submerged old atolls, the archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia, and southern Vietnam. Named after the 19th-century British whaling captain Richard Spratly who sighted Spratly Island in 1843, the islands contain less than 200 ha (500 acres) of naturally occurring land area that is spread over hundreds of square km of the South China Sea.