We study maximal almost rigid modules over a gentle algebra $A$. We prove that the number of indecomposable direct summands of every maximal almost rigid $A$-module is equal to the sum of the number of vertices and the number of arrows of the Gabriel quiver of $A$. Moreover, the algebra $A$, considered as an $A$-module, can be completed to a maximal almost rigid module in a unique way. Gentle algebras are precisely the tiling algebras of surfaces with marked points. We show that the (permissible) triangulations of the surface of $A$ are in bijection with the maximal almost rigid $A$-modules. Furthermore, we study the endomorphism algebra $C=\text{End}_A T$ of a maximal almost rigid module $T$. We construct a fully faithful functor $G\colon \text{mod}\,A\to \text{mod}\, \overline{A}$ into the module category of a bigger gentle algebra $\overline{A}$ and show that $G$ maps maximal almost rigid $A$-modules to tilting $\overline{A}$-modules. In particular, $C$ and $\overline{A}$ are derived equivalent and $C$ is gentle. After giving a geometric realization of the functor $G$, we obtain a tiling $G(\mathbf{T})$ of the surface of $\overline{A}$ as the image of the triangulation $\mathbf{T}$ corresponding to $T$. We then show that the tiling algebra of $G(\mathbf{T})$ is $C$. Moreover, the tiling algebra of $\mathbf{T}$ is obtained algebraically from $C$ as the tensor algebra with respect to the $C$-bimodule $\text{Ext}_C^2(DC,C)$, which also is fundamental in cluster-tilting theory.