The Banda Islands are a remote cluster of ten volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, Maluku province, once the world's only source of nutmeg and mace — the 'Spice Islands' that drove European colonial expansion across the globe. The islands retain crumbling Dutch VOC forts, colonial warehouses draped in bougainvillea, and nutmeg plantations still harvested by hand, all set amid some of the most dramatic and pristine ocean scenery in Asia. The underwater walls around the islands drop to abyssal depths and are covered in enormous gorgonian sea fans, making Banda one of Indonesia's finest and most exclusive diving destinations.