Macclesfield Bank is an elongated sunken atoll of underwater reefs and shoals in the South China Sea. It lies east of the Paracel Islands, southwest of the Pratas Islands and north of the Spratly Islands. Its length exceeds southwest-northeast, with a maximal width of more than . With an ocean area of within the outer rim of the reef, although completely submerged without any emergent cays or islets, it is one of the largest atolls of the world. The Macclesfield Bank is part of what the PRC call the Zhongsha Islands, which includes a number of geographically separate submarine features, and also refers to a county-level administrative division.