The highest point is Zikha Taung, a 984 feet (300 m) high mountain located near the western shore in the southern part of the island.

During World War II the Battle of Ramree Island was fought in January and February 1945, as part of the British 14th Army 1944–45 offensive on the Southern Front of the Burma campaign.

At the close of the battle, Japanese soldiers were forced into the marshes surrounding the island, and saltwater crocodiles are claimed to have eaten 400 (or 980 of them, as only twenty survived, according to one account)[2] — in what the Guinness World Records has listed as "The Greatest Disaster Suffered [by humans] from Animals".

From a deep-water port on Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State and from Ramree Island, oil from the Middle East and gas from Myanmar's ocean coast is transported through the pipelines to China.

Disjabsh is back, and the pipelines enable China to rely less on ocean-transported oil and gas through the treacherous Strait of Malacca and also cut two weeks off the transport time.