GUANCHES, ANCIENT NATIVES OF THE CANARY ISLANDS

Joseph de Ca'th Lon with the Guanches, Tenerife

Today, The Grandma and her friends continue resting after the night of Carnival in Tenerife. The Grandma and John de Ca'th Lon are very interested in the Canarian History and especially in the ancient native inhabitants known as the Guanches.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon has gone to the public library in Santa Cruz de Tenerife to search some information about the Guanches and the latest studies about their DNA while The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 22).

More information: Reason and Result

Guanches were the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands. In 2017, the first genome-wide data from the Guanches confirmed a North African origin and that they were genetically most similar to modern North African Berber peoples of the nearby North African mainland. It is believed that they migrated to the archipelago around 1000 BC or perhaps earlier.

The Guanches were the only native people known to have lived in the Macaronesian region before the arrival of Europeans, as there is no evidence that the other Macaronesian archipelagos (Azores, Cape Verde, Madeira) were inhabited before Europeans arrived.

After the Spanish conquest of the Canaries they were ethnically and culturally absorbed by Spanish settlers, although elements of their culture survive to this day, intermixed within Canarian customs and traditions such as Silbo, the whistled language of La Gomera Island.

Statue of a Guanche, Tenerife

The native term guanchinet literally translated means person of Tenerife, from Guan = person and Chinet = Tenerife. It was modified, according to Juan Núñez de la Peña, by the Castilians into Guanchos. 

Though etymologically being an ancient, Tenerife-specific, term, the word Guanche is now mostly used to refer to the pre-Hispanic aboriginal inhabitants of the entire archipelago.

Roman author and military officer Pliny the Elder, drawing upon the accounts of Juba II, king of Mauretania, stated that a Mauretanian expedition to the islands around 50 BC found the ruins of great buildings, but otherwise no population to speak of. If this account is accurate, it may suggest that the Guanches were not the only inhabitants, or the first ones; or that the expedition simply did not explore the islands thoroughly.

More information: Web Tenerife

Tenerife, specifically the archaeological site of the Cave of the Guanches in Icod de los Vinos, has provided habitation dates dating back to the 6th century BC, according to analysis carried out on ceramics that were found inside the cave.

Strictly speaking, the Guanches were the indigenous peoples of Tenerife. The population seems to have lived in relative isolation up to the time of the Castilian conquest, around the 14th century, though Genoese, Portuguese, and Castilians may have visited there from the second half of the 8th century onwards. The name came to be applied to the indigenous populations of all the seven Canary Islands, those of Tenerife being the most important or powerful.

What remains of their language, Guanche –a few expressions, vocabulary words and the proper names of ancient chieftains still borne by certain families– exhibits positive similarities with the Berber languages. The first reliable account of the Guanche language was provided by the Genoese explorer Nicoloso da Recco in 1341, with a translation of numbers used by the islanders.

Statue of a Guanche, Tenerife

According to European chroniclers, the Guanches did not possess a system of writing at the time of conquest; the writing system may have fallen into disuse or aspects of it were simply overlooked by the colonizers. Inscriptions, glyphs and rock paintings and carvings are quite abundant throughout the islands. In 1878 Dr. René Verneau discovered rock carvings in the ravines of Las Balos that resemble Libyan or Numidian writing dating from the time of Roman occupation or earlier. In other locations, Libyco-Berber script has been identified.

During the 14th century, the Guanches are presumed to have had other contacts with Balearic seafarers, suggested by the presence of Balearic artifacts found on several of the Canary Islands.

More information: Ancient Origins

The Castilian conquest of the Canary Islands began in 1402, with the expedition of Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle to the island of Lanzarote. Gadifer would invade Lanzarote and Fuerteventura with ease since many of the aboriginals, faced with issues of starvation and poor agriculture, would surrender to Spanish rule.

The other five islands fought back. El Hierro and the Bimbache population were the next to fall, then La Gomera, Gran Canaria, La Palma and in 1496, Tenerife.

In the First Battle of Acentejo (31 May 1494), called La Matanza (the slaughter), Guanches ambushed the Castilians in a valley and killed many. Only one in five of the Castilians survived, including the leader of the expedition, Alonso Fernandez de Lugo.

More information: StMu History Media

Lugo would return later to the island with the alliance of the kings of the southern part of the island, and defeated the Guanches in the Battle of Aguere. The northern Menceyatos or provinces fell after the Second Battle of Acentejo with the defeat of the successor of Bencomo, Bentor, Mencey of Taoro –what is now the Orotava Valley– in 1496.

Mencey Pelinor

Genetic evidence shows that northern African peoples, possibly descendants of the Capsian culture, made a significant contribution to the aboriginal population of the Canaries following desertification of the Sahara at some point after 6000 BC.

Linguistic evidence suggests ties between the Guanche language and the Berber languages of North Africa, particularly when comparing numeral systems. Research into the genetics of the Guanche population have led to the conclusion that they share an ancestry with Berber peoples.

The islands were visited by a number of peoples within recorded history. The Numidians, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians knew of the islands and made frequent visits, including expeditions dispatched from Mogador by Juba. The Romans occupied northern Africa and visited the Canaries between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, judging from Roman artifacts found on and near the island of Lanzarote. These show that Romans did trade with the Canaries, though there is no evidence of them ever settling there. Archaeology of the Canaries seems to reflect diverse levels of technology, some differing from the Neolithic culture that was encountered at the time of conquest.

More information: Owlcation

It is thought that the arrival of the aborigines to the archipelago led to the extinction of some big reptiles and insular mammals, for example, the giant lizard Gallotia goliath, which managed to reach up to a meter in length, and Canariomys bravoi, the giant rat of Tenerife.

A 2003 genetics research article by Nicole Maca-Meyer et al. published in the European Journal of Human Genetics compared aboriginal Guanche mtDNA, collected from Canarian archaeological sites, to that of today's Canarians and concluded that, despite the continuous changes suffered by the population -Spanish colonisation, slave trade-, aboriginal mtDNA, direct maternal, lineages constitute a considerable proportion (42 – 73%) of the Canarian gene pool.

The genetics thus suggests the native men were sharply reduced in numbers due to the war, large numbers of Spaniard men stayed in the islands and married the local women, the Canarians adopted Spanish names, language, and religion, and in this way, the Canarians were Hispanicized.

A simulation of a Guanche

An autosomal study in 2011 found an average Northwest African influence of about 17% in Canary Islanders with a wide interindividual variation ranging from 0% to 96%. 

According to the authors, the substantial Northwest African ancestry found for Canary Islanders supports that, despite the aggressive conquest by the Spanish in the 15th century and the subsequent immigration, genetic footprints of the first settlers of the Canary Islands persist in the current inhabitants. Paralleling mtDNA findings, the largest average Northwest African contribution was found for the samples from La Gomera.

According to an international investigation whose results were given in 2017, a small part of the Guanches aborigines had as relatives the first European farmers from Anatolia, present-day Turkey. This data has been discovered thanks to the analysis of the genome which also confirms that the vast majority of Canarian aborigines come from North Africa but were also related to the first European farmers, whose genetics were introduced into Europe from Anatolia through the migrations of farmers during the Neolithic expansion, around 7,000 years ago. 

More information: Atlan

Little is known of the religion of the Guanches. There was a general belief in a supreme being, called Achamán in Tenerife, Acoran in Gran Canaria, Eraoranhan in Hierro, and Abora in La Palma. The women of Hierro worshipped a goddess called Moneiba. According to tradition, the male and female gods lived in mountains, from which they descended to hear the prayers of the people.

On other islands, the natives venerated the sun, moon, earth and stars. A belief in an evil spirit was general. The demon of Tenerife was called Guayota and lived at the peak of Teide volcano, which was the hell called Echeyde; in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, the minor demons took the form of wild black woolly dogs called Jucanchas in the first and Tibicenas in the latter, which lived in deep caves of the mountains, emerging at night to attack livestock and human beings.

Statue of a Guanche, Tenerife

In Tenerife, Magec (god of the Sun) and Chaxiraxi (the goddess mother) were also worshipped. In times of drought, the Guanches drove their flocks to consecrated grounds, where the lambs were separated from their mothers in the belief that their plaintive bleating would melt the heart of the Great Spirit. During the religious feasts, hostilities were held in abeyance, from war to personal quarrels. Idols have been found in the islands, including the Idol of Tara and the Guatimac but many more figures have been found in the rest of the archipelago.

Most researchers agree that the Guanches performed their worship in the open, under sacred trees such as pine or drago, or near sacred mountains such as Mount Teide, which was believed to be the abode of the devil Guayota.  

Mount Teide was sacred to the aboriginal Guanches and since 2007 is a World Heritage Site. 

More information: Biblioteca Pleyades

Mummification was practiced throughout the islands and was highly developed on Tenerife in particular. In La Palma, the elderly were left to die alone at their own wish. The Guanches embalmed their dead. In Tenerife and Gran Canaria, the corpse was simply wrapped up in goat and sheep skins, while in other islands a resinous substance was used to preserve the body, which was then placed in a cave difficult to access, or buried under a tumulus. The work of embalming was reserved for a special class, with women tending to female corpses, and men for the male ones. Embalming seems not to have been universal, and bodies were often simply hidden in caves or buried.

In 1933, the largest Guanche necropolis of the Canary Islands was found, at Uchova in the municipality of San Miguel de Abona in the south of the island of Tenerife. This cemetery was almost completely looted; it is estimated to have contained between 60 and 74 mummies.

Although little is known about this practice among the aboriginals, it has been shown that they performed both animal sacrifices and human sacrifices.

Guanches in Gran Canaria, 15th Century

In Tenerife during the summer solstice, the Guanches were accustomed to kill livestock and throw them into a fire as an offering to the gods. 

As for human sacrifices, in Tenerife it was the custom to throw the Punta de Rasca a living child at sunrise at the summer solstice. Sometimes these children came from all parts of the island, even from remote areas of Punta de Rasca. It follows that it was a common custom of the island. On this island sacrificing other human victims associated with the death of the king, where adult men rushed to the sea are also known. Embalmers who produced the Guanche mummies, also had a habit of throwing into the sea one year after the king's death.

Bones of children mixed with lambs and kids were found in Gran Canaria, and in Tenerife amphorae have been found with remains of children inside. This suggests a different kind of ritual infanticide to those who were thrown overboard.

More information: Holidway

Child sacrifice has been seen in other cultures, especially in the Mediterranean -Carthage (now Tunisia), Ugarit in the current Syria, Cyprus and Crete.

The political and social institutions of the Guanches varied. In some islands like Gran Canaria, hereditary autocracy by matrilineality prevailed, in others the government was elective. In Tenerife all the land belonged to the kings who leased it to their subjects. In Gran Canaria, suicide was regarded as honourable, and whenever a new king was installed, one of his subjects willingly honoured the occasion by throwing himself over a precipice. In some islands, polyandry was practised; in others they were monogamous. Insult of a woman by an armed man was allegedly a capital offense. Anyone who had been accused of a crime, had to attend a public trial in Tagoror, a public court where those being prosecuted were sentenced after a trial.

The Grandma contemplates the Guanches statues

The island of Tenerife was divided into nine small kingdoms or menceyatos, each ruled by a king or Mencey. The Mencey was the ultimate ruler of the kingdom, and at times, meetings were held between the various kings. When the Castilians invaded the Canary Islands, the southern kingdoms joined the Castilian invaders on the promise of the richer lands of the north; the Castilians betrayed them after ultimately securing victory at the Battles of Aguere and Acentejo.

Guanches wore garments made from goat skins or woven from plant fibers called Tamarcos, which have been found in the tombs of Tenerife. They had a taste for ornaments and necklaces of wood, bone and shells, worked in different designs. Beads of baked earth, cylindrical and of all shapes, with smooth or polished surfaces, mostly colored black and red, were fairly common. 

More information: Web Tenerife

Guanche weapons adapted to the insular environment -using wood, bone, obsidian and stone as primary materials-, with later influences from medieval European weaponry. Basic armaments in several of the islands included javelins of 1 to 2 m in length, known as Banot on Tenerife; round, polished stones; spears; maces -common in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, and known as Magado and Sunta, respectively.

After the arrival of the Europeans, Guanche nobility from Gran Canaria were known to wield large wooden swords, larger than the European two-handed type, called Magido, which were said to be very effective against both infantrymen and cavalry. Weaponry made of wood was hardened with fire. These armaments were commonly complemented with an obsidian knife known as Tabona.

Dwellings were situated in natural or artificial caves in the mountains. In areas where cave dwellings were not feasible, they built small round houses and, according to the Castilians, practiced crude fortification.

More information: Nature

The ancient codes were doubtless originally suggested

by the discovery and diffusion of the art of writing.

Henry James Sumner Maine

CARNIVAL IN TENERIFE: EXPLOSION OF JOY AND COLOUR

Enjoying Carnival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Today, The Grandma and her friends are resting after an intensive and amazing night in Santa Cruz de Tenerife enjoying the local Carnival, considered the second most important in the world, after Rio de Janeiro.

The Grandma stayed in Santa Cruz de Tenerife celebrating Carnival some years ago with The Bonds and she has wanted to remember that moment returning to this beautiful island again.

The friends spent a crazy night celebrating this amazing party with the local inhabitants and thousands of tourists that arrived to the island to live this event.

It's Sunday and after this exciting night, all friends are resting or sleeping except The Grandma, who is studying a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 21).

More information: Purpose

The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is held each February in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the largest of the Canary Islands, and attracts people from all over the world.

It is considered the second most popular and internationally known carnival, after the one held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Partially for this reason, the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is twinned with the city of Rio de Janeiro.

In 1980, it was declared a Tourist Festival of International Interest by the Secretary of State for Tourism. The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife aspires to become a World Heritage Site, as a declaration of its status as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO would promote the festival internationally. In 1987, singer Celia Cruz went to the Carnival Chicharrero with Billo's Caracas Boys; attended by 250,000 people, the concert was registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest gathering of people in an outdoor plaza to attend a concert.

Carnival of Tenerife, 2018

The festivities on the streets of Santa Cruz de Tenerife start on the Friday before Carnival with an opening parade, which reaches its height during the night when thousands of people in fancy dresses dance until the early hours of the next day. The party continues night after night until Ash Wednesday. That day, people of Santa Cruz de Tenerife celebrate the entierro de la sardina, burial of the sardine, and with this event the carnival is officially over. However, the party starts up again the following weekend, known as the weekend of the piñata.

The festival has two parts: the official Carnival, and the Carnival on the street. The official carnival has more than a hundred groups, including murgas, comparsas, rondallas and other musical groups. The street carnival is more loosely organized, and comprises the people celebrating on the streets. Thousands of people come each day to the streets to participate, most of whom wear a disguise in accordance with Carnival tradition.

More information: Carnaval de Tenerife

The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has been celebrated since the time of the earliest European settlement, and possibly earlier. In 1605 Gaspar Luis Hidalgo alluded to the habit of reversing the sexes in dress. Early written references date from the end of the 18th century, in the writings of visitors. The journal of Lope Antonio de la Guerra Peña in 1778 includes a dance held in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where he then talked about comparsas, bands playing conga music. In 1783, the Corregidor reported the use of masks being banned by royal instructions. In practice the ban was not carried out, and a carnival feature was the mixing of the masked upper class with the common people.

During the weeks preceding the Wednesday election of the Carnival Queen, there are contests for adults and children comparsas, lyrical and musical groups, rondallas -string ensembles-, the Queen of the Elderly, the Child Queen, Song of Laughter and adult and children's murgas. The official Carnival song is chosen, which will be presented to the Queen candidates in the hall of the City Council. Also featured are a choreography contest and a contest rewarding the most original floats and decorated cars. Nearly a month earlier, preparation starts with the official presentation at the Calle de La Noria. Shortly before Christmas, the Carnival poster is released.

The Queen of Carnival of Tenerife, 2019

The Wednesday before Carnival weekend, the Queen of the Carnival is elected during the so called Gala Reina. The event is usually broadcast to the entire country, and abroad by satellite. 

During the gala, the candidates parade across the main stage in their rich and beautiful costumes that might weigh up to 100 kilograms.

A jury composed of members of the municipal corporation and celebrities chooses the queen. After choosing the bridesmaids, the mayor hands the sceptre to the winner. Since the costumes are heavy, the candidates rely on wheeled transportation. The costumes are also expensive, so the candidates are sponsored, usually by a multinational corporation with a presence on the islands.

The Hogar Canario Venezolano also sends its own Queen and holds a privileged position in the next Announcement Parade. Costumes are usually made of feathers, plastic, metal and paper. The queen is responsible for representing the carnival at tourism fairs as an ambassador for the Canary Islands.

More information: Web Tenerife

On Friday the Announcement Parade is held, in which all participating groups march along the main thoroughfares of the city announcing the arrival of the carnival. The parade begins at the Parque La Granja, concluding at the Plaza de España. It crosses the Ramblas, Avenida Islas Canarias, Plaza Weyler and Méndez Núñez to return to Las Ramblas, then turning onto the Avenida Anaga and ending at the Plaza de Europa or the Council of Tenerife building.

The queen and the bridesmaids, on their own floats, are escorted by the murgas and rondallas. Private carriages also participate in the parade, which lasts more than four hours. That night, the street carnival officially begins.

The Saturday of Carnival is a day dedicated entirely to dance. There are two main venues: one in the Plaza de la Candelaria, which replacing the one in the Plaza de España during its renovation, and one in the Plaza del Príncipe. Depending on the holiday, one or more stages are built in the Plaza de Europa for electronic music, or tents in the Plaza de la Iglesia de la Concepción and the Plaza de Europa feature Latin music. Dances not only cover the three points but all the connecting streets, bars and cars playing their own music. One of the main streets of the carnival is Bethencourt Afonso, popularly known as Calle San José.

Carnival Monday is a day of feasting, with performances at the main venues in the capital. 

Carnival of Tenerife, 2019

On Carnival Tuesday a Coso, parade, runs along the Avenida de Anaga, marking the official end of Carnival. Again march carnival groups, floats, decorated cars and the Carnival Queens. During the afternoon a show is held especially for tourists arriving by bus from other areas of the Canary Islands.

On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is celebrated the burial of the sardine. The streets of Santa Cruz are draped in mourning. A giant sardine made of paper is carried in a funeral procession, followed by wailing widows. The Catholic Church is mocked, with participants dressed as popes, bishops and nuns imitating blessings and other religious rites, often accompanied by sexual objects. 

More information: FU Tenerife

The weekend puts an end to Don Carnal until the next year and whose role, especially on Saturday, has grown in recent decades to the point of having internationally renowned entertainment comparable to the Monday of Carnival.

Saturday of Piñata or Sábado de Piñata: Since 2008 it was called the Carnival by Day, although its first edition had to be moved to the following Sunday because of inclement weather. From 12:00 to 16:00, it is celebrated with simultaneous musical performances at three venues in the center of the city: Plaza Weyler, Plaza del Príncipe and Plaza de la Candelaria.

Sunday of Piñata or Domingo de Piñata: On Sunday morning the Old Cars Contest is held, followed by a traditional performance of the Afilarmónica NIFU-NiFá and the year's vocal-group winner at Plaza del Príncipe.

The carnival concludes at night with a fireworks display.

More information: Rural Tenerife

Simply enjoy life and the great pleasures that come with it.

Karolina Kurkova

TENERIFE, DISCOVERING THE ISLAND OF ETERNAL SPRING

Claire Fontaine visits La Candelaria Church

Today, The Grandma and her friends have arrived to Tenerife. They are going to stay some days in the island enjoying nature, food and carnival.

Tenerife is one of the capitals of the Canary Islands with Las Palmas and the island offers lots of amazing attractions thanks to its biodiversity and its ancient history. Tenerife has an awesome Guanche heritage that has given to the island its particular idiosyncrasy.

During the flight from El Hierro to Tenerife, The Grandma has been studying a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 19 & 20).

More information: Modals 2-Past

Tenerife is the largest and most populated island of the seven Canary Islands. It is the largest and most populous island of Macaronesia.

Tenerife hosts one of the world's largest carnivals and the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is working to be designated UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of the World.

The capital of the island, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, is also the seat of the island council, Cabildo Insular. The city is capital of the Canary Islands, shared with Las Palmas, sharing governmental institutions such as presidency and ministries.

Tonyi Tamaki visits La Candelaria Church

The island is home to the University of La Laguna; founded in 1792 in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, it is the oldest university in the Canaries.

The city of La Laguna is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the second city most populated on the island and the third in the archipelago.

It was capital of the Canary Islands before Santa Cruz replaced it in 1833.

Teide National Park is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is located in the center of the island. In it, the Mount Teide rises as the highest of the islands of the Atlantic Ocean, and the third-largest volcano in the world from its base. Also on the island, the Macizo de Anaga has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2015. It has the largest number of endemic species in Europe.

More information: UNESCO

Tenerife is a rugged and volcanic island sculpted by successive eruptions throughout its history. There are four historically recorded volcanic eruptions, none of which has led to casualties. The first occurred in 1704, when the Arafo, Fasnia and Siete Fuentes volcanoes erupted simultaneously. Two years later, in 1706, the greatest eruption occurred at Trevejo. This volcano produced great quantities of lava which buried the city and port of Garachico. The last eruption of the 18th century happened in 1798 at Cañadas de Teide, in Chahorra. Finally, and most recently, in 1909 that formed the Chinyero cinder cone, in the municipality of Santiago del Teide, erupted.

Tenerife is an island created volcanically, building up from the ocean floor 20–50 million years ago.

According to the theory of plate tectonics, the ascent of magma originating from the Earth's mantle is produced by the effects of tectonic activity from faults or fractures that exist at the oceanic plate.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits Guanches Avenue

These fractures lie along the structural axes of the island itself, forming themselves from the Alpine orogeny during the Tertiary Period due to the movements of the African plate.

Tenerife is known internationally for its warm and pleasant climate, as the Island of Eternal Spring.

The island, which lies at the same latitude as the central Florida, enjoys a warm tropical climate with an average of 18–24 °C in the winter and 24–28 °C in the summer.

The island of Tenerife has a remarkable ecological diversity in spite of its small surface area, which is a consequence of the special environmental conditions on the island, where its distinct orography modifies the general climatic conditions at a local level, producing a significant variety of microclimates. This diversity of natural microclimates and, therefore, habitats, means that a rich and diverse flora, 1400 species of plants, exists on the island, with well over a hundred entirely endemic to Tenerife.

More information: Web Tenerife

Endemic species include Viper's bugloss, Teide white broom and Teide violet. The fauna of the island has many endemic invertebrates and unique reptile, bird and mammal species. The fauna of Tenerife includes some 400 species of fish, 56 birds, five reptiles, two amphibians, 13 land mammals and several thousand invertebrates, along with several species of sea turtles, whales and dolphins.

Before the arrival of the aborigines, the Canary Islands and especially the island of Tenerife, were inhabited by endemic animals now mostly extinct. These specimens reached larger than usual sizes, because of a phenomenon called island gigantism. Among these species, the best known in Tenerife were:

Jordi Santanyí under a Dracaena draco tree

The giant lizard or Gallotia goliath inhabited the island of Tenerife from the Holocene until the fifteenth century AD. It was a specimen reaching a length of 120 to 125 centimeters.

The giant rat or Canariomys bravoi. Fossils mostly dating from the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Its skull reached up to 7 centimeters long, so it could have reached the size of a rabbit, which would make it quite large compared to European species of rats. Tenerife Giant Rat fossils usually occur in caves and volcanic tubes associated with Gallotia goliath.

The giant tortoise or Geochelone burchardi. A large tortoise, similar to those currently found in some oceanic islands like the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Remains found date from the Miocene; this tortoise may have inhabited the island until the Upper Pleistocene, apparently becoming extinct because of volcanic events long before the arrival of humans. Its shell measured approximately 65 to 94 centimetres.

The official natural symbols associated with Tenerife are the bird blue chaffinch, Fringilla teydea, and the Canary Islands dragon tree, Dracaena draco tree.

More information: Outdoor Tenerife

The island is located between 28° and 29° N and the 16° and 17° W meridian. It is situated north of the Tropic of Cancer, occupying a central position between the other Canary Islands of Gran Canaria, La Gomera and La Palma. The island is about 300 km from the African coast, and approximately 1,000 km from the Iberian Peninsula.

Tenerife is the largest island of the Canary Islands archipelago, with a surface area of 2,034.38 km2 and has the longest coastline, amounting to 342 km.

Virgin of Candelaria, the black virgin of Tenerife

The island's indigenous people, the Guanche Berbers, referred to the island as Achinet or Chenet in their language, variant spellings are found in the literature.

According to Pliny the Younger, Berber king Juba II sent an expedition to the Canary Islands and Madeira; he named the Canary Islands for the particularly ferocious dogs (canaria) on the island. Juba II and Ancient Romans referred to the island of Tenerife as Nivaria, derived from the Latin word nix, meaning snow, referring to the snow-covered peak of the Teide volcano.

Later maps dating to the 14th and 15th century, by mapmakers such as Bontier and Le Verrier, refer to the island as Isla del Infierno, literally meaning Island of Hell, referring to the volcanic activity and eruptions of Mount Teide.

More information: Lonely Planet

The earliest known human settlement in the islands date to around 200 BC, by Berbers known as the Guanches. However, the Cave of the Guanches in the municipality of Icod de los Vinos in the north of Tenerife, has provided the oldest chronologies of the Canary Islands, with dates around the sixth century BC.

Regarding the technological level, the Guanches can be framed among the peoples of the Stone Age, although this terminology is rejected due to the ambiguity that it presents. The Guanche culture is characterized by an advanced cultural development, possibly related to the Berber cultural features imported from North Africa and a poor technological development, determined by the scarcity of raw materials, especially minerals that allow the extraction of metals. The main activity was grazing, although the population were also engaged in agriculture, as well as fishing and the collection of shellfish from the shore or using fishing craft.

The Grandma visits El Castillo Negro, Tenerife

As for beliefs, the Guanche religion was polytheistic although the astral cult was widespread.

Beside him there was an animistic religiosity that sacralized certain places, mainly rocks and mountains. Among the main Guanche gods could be highlighted; Achamán (god of the sky and supreme creator), Chaxiraxi (mother goddess identified later with the Virgin of Candelaria), Magec (god of the sun) and Guayota (the demon) among many other gods and ancestral spirits.

Especially singular was the cult to the dead, practicing the mummification of corpses. In addition, small lithic and clay figurines of the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic type associated with rituals, interpreted as idols, have appeared on the island. Among these stands out the so-called Idol of Guatimac, which is believed to represent a genius or protective spirit.

More information: The Culture Trip

Tenerife was the last island of Canaries to be conquered and the one that took the longest time to submit to the Castilian troops. Although the traditional dates of conquest of Tenerife are established between 1494, landing of Alonso Fernández de Lugo, and 1496, conquest of the island, it must be taken into account that the attempts to annex the island of Tenerife to the Crown of Castile date back at least to 1464. For this reason, from the first attempt to conquer the island in 1464, until it was finally conquered in 1496, 32 years passed.

Many of the natives died from new infectious diseases, such as influenza and probably smallpox, to which they lacked resistance or acquired immunity. The new colonists intermarried with the local native population. For a century after the conquest, many new colonists settled on the island, including immigrants from the diverse territories of the growing Spanish Empire, such as Flanders, Italy, and Germany.

Tenerife, like the other islands, has maintained a close relationship with Latin America, as both were part of the Spanish Empire. From the start of the colonization of the New World, many Spanish expeditions stopped at the island for supplies on their way to the Americas.

Tina Picotes visits La Laguna, Tenerife

They also recruited many tinerfeños for their crews, who formed an integral part of the conquest expeditions. Others joined ships in search of better prospects. It is also important to note the exchange in plant and animal species that made those voyages.

After a century and a half of relative growth, based on the grape growing sector, numerous families emigrated, especially to Venezuela and Cuba. The Crown wanted to encourage population of underdeveloped zones in the Americas to pre-empt the occupation by foreign forces, as had happened with the English in Jamaica and the French in the Guianas and western Hispaniola, which the French renamed as Saint-Domingue. Canary Islanders, including many tinerfeños, left for the New World.

The most notable conflict was the British invasion of Tenerife in 1797. Between 1833 and 1927, Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 the government ordered that the capital be shared with Las Palmas, as it remains at present. This change in status has encouraged development in Las Palmas.

Before his rise to power, Francisco Franco was posted to Tenerife in March 1936 by a Republican government wary of his influence and political leanings. However, Franco received information and in Gran Canaria agreed to collaborate in the military coup that would result in the Spanish Civil War; the Canaries fell to the Nationalists in July 1936.

In the 1950s, the misery of the post-war years caused thousands of the island's inhabitants to emigrate to Cuba and other parts of Latin America.

More information: The Telegraph

The general knowledge of time on the island depends,

curiously enough, on the direction of the wind.

John Millington Synge

EL HIERRO, CONSTANT VOLCANIC AND SYSMIC ACTIVITY

Tonyi Tamaki visits El Hierro

Today, The Grandma and her friends are visiting El Hierro, a natural paradise where you can enjoy endemic species like Gallotia simonyi machadoi, an autochthonous giant lizard or Juniperus phoenicea, a beautiful and amazing tree.

The Grandma is very interested in visiting this island because she loves volcanoes and reptiles and El Hierro offers both things. All friends have been waiting the arrival of Tonyi Tamaki, the last member of the group, to start their trip around this beautiful place designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve.

Before Tonyi's arrival, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 18).

More information: Modals 1-Present and Future

El Hierro, nicknamed Isla del Meridiano, the Meridian Island, is the smallest and farthest south and west of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. Its capital is Valverde. At 268.71 square kilometres, it is the smallest of the seven main islands of the Canaries.

The name El Hierro, although spelled like the Spanish word for iron, is not related to that word. The H in the name of the metal is derived from the F of Latin ferrum, compare higa for fig. The H in the name of the island dates back to the time in Old Spanish orthography when the distinction between the letters I and J was not yet established and a silent h was written before word-initial ie to ensure that the i was read as a semivowel, not as the consonant.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon contemplates El Charco Azul

The confusion with the name of the metal had effects on the international naming of the island. As early as the 16th century, maps and texts called the island after the word for iron in other languages: Portuguese Ferro, French l'île de Fer, and Latin Insula Ferri.

Nevertheless, the origin of the name ero or erro or yerro is not definitely known. It is thought to be derived from one of several words in the Guanche language of the pre-Hispanic inhabitants, known as Bimbaches. Juan de Abreu Galindo, in a manuscript translated and published by George Glas in 1764, gives the native name of the island as Esero or Eseró, meaning strong.

More information: El Hierro

Richard Henry Major, however, in notes on his translation of Le Canarien, observes that the Guanche word hero or herro, meaning cistern, could easily have lapsed into hierro by a process of folk etymology. It is believed that the Bimbaches had to construct cisterns to save fresh rainwater. The Gran diccionario guanche gives the meaning of the Guanche word hero in Spanish as fuente, spring water source.

The ancient natives of the island, called Bimbaches, were subjected to Spanish rule by Jean de Béthencourt (d.1425) -more by the process of negotiation than by military action. Béthencourt had as his ally and negotiator Augeron, brother of the island's native monarch.

The Grandma contemplates El Hierro

Augeron had been captured years before by the Europeans and now served as mediator between the Europeans and the Guanches.

In return for control over the island, Béthencourt promised to respect the liberty of the natives, but his son eventually broke his promise, selling many of the bimbaches into slavery. Many Frenchmen and Galicians subsequently settled on the island. There was a revolt of the natives against the harsh treatment of the governor Lázaro Vizcaíno, but it was suppressed.

There is evidence of at least three major landslides that have affected El Hierro in the last few hundred thousand years. The most recent of these was the El Golfo landslide that occurred about 15 thousand years ago, involving collapse of the northern flank of the island.

More information: Hello Canary Islands

The landslide formed the El Golfo valley and created a debris avalanche with a volume of 150–180 km3. Turbidite deposits related to this landslide have been recognized in drill cores from the Agadir Basin to the north of the Canary Islands. Detailed analysis of these deposits suggests that the slope failure did not occur as a single event but a series of smaller failures over a period of hours or days. Local tsunami are likely to have been triggered by these landslides but no evidence has been found to confirm this.

Claire Fontaine visits the Lagartario, El Hierro

The Instituto Vulcanológico de Canarias, Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands, and National Geographic Institute’s seismic monitoring station located in Valverde detected increased seismic activity.

The climate of El Hierro depends on the area. The climate ranges are from humid subtropical climate in the center of the island, to hot semi-arid (BSh) and to a tropical desert climate (BWh) in coastal parts.

El Hierro's size and geography supports entirely endemic species including the critically endangered El Hierro giant lizard, Gallotia simonyi, for which there is a captive breeding programme, allowing its reintroduction.

Download Helping the Hierro Giant Lizard to Survive

The non-barren parts of the interior rely on relief precipitation, not much more than the average of 19 rainfall days per year, high relative humidity and geothermal springs. This non-arid parts have thermophilous, geothermal heat-liking, juniper clumps and a pine forest with other evergreens.

In 2000, El Hierro was designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve, with 60% of its territory protected to preserve its natural and cultural diversity. Among cetaceans in these waters, it is notable that several species of lesser known beaked whales inhabit around the island.

Gallotia simonyi machadoi, the giant lizard

Like the rest of the Canary Islands chain, El Hierro is volcanic and sharply mountainous. One eruption has to date been recorded on the island: from the Volcan de Lomo Negro vent in 1793, lasting a month. Except as landscaped at its harbour towns the shore is rocky and in places precipitous.

El Hierro is a 268.71-square-kilometre island, formed late, about 1.2 million years ago after three successive eruptions, the island emerged from the ocean as a triangle of basaltic dykes topped with a volcanic cone more than 2,000 metres high.

With continued activity resulting in the island expanding to have the largest number of volcanoes in the Canaries, over 500 cones, another 300 covered by more recent deposits, together with approximately 70 caves and volcanic galleries, including the Cueva de Don Justo whose collection of channels exceeds 6 km.

More information: Earth Observatory-NASA

Landslides, plant erosion and seasonal wind erosion have reduced the size and height of the island. The current highest point is in the middle of the island, in Malpaso, 1501 meters high.

Like all of the Canary Islands, El Hierro is a tourist destination. It is served by a small airport -El Hierro Airport at Valverde- and a ferry terminal at Puerto de la Estaca, both of which connect to Tenerife.

Jordi Santanyí and a Sabina (Juniperus phoenicea)

As a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, El Hierro has limited construction to less than half of its total surface and buildings to two floors, maintaining its traditional look and social structure more than the other six major Canary Islands. The island is part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and includes three municipalities: Frontera, Valverde and El Pinar.

Valverde is situated in the northeast and Frontera in the west, both contain several villages. The seat of the island government, Cabildo Insular, is in the town of Valverde, which houses approximately half of the island's population.

El Hierro was used in various parts of Europe for more than 500 years as the prime meridian commonly outside of the future British Empire.

More information: Universitat de Barcelona

Already in the 2nd century A.D., Ptolemy considered a definition of the zero meridian based on the western-most position of the known world, giving a few maps with only positive, eastern longitudes.

In 1634 France, ruled by Louis XIII and his minister Richelieu, decided that Ferro's meridian should be used as a key reference of maps, their considering the island's historic meridian and status as the western-most known land of peoples of the Known World.

Tina Picotes enjoys El Hierro

Flores Island is the westernmost Azore discovered by the Portuguese navigators in the early 15th century -after the First Voyage of Columbus in 1492 scholars and cartographers sometimes grouped them among the new world. The Paris elite considered El Hierro to be exactly 20° west of the Paris meridian, 1⁄18th of its relevant parallel of the globe. Old international maps, outside of Anglo-North American realms, often have a common grid with Paris degrees at the top and Ferro degrees, offset by 20 from Paris, at the bottom. Louis Feuillée also worked on this problem in 1724.

The most important festival of El Hierro is the Bajada de la Virgen de los Reyes, held every four years, on the first Saturday of July. During the festival, the Virgin of the Kings, Virgen de los Reyes, patron saint of the island of El Hierro, is taken from her sanctuary in La Dehesa, in the municipality of La Frontera, and carried to the capital of the island, Valverde, making a tour of 44 kilometers and running through all the towns of El Hierro. The annual festival of the Virgin is celebrated every September 24.

The official natural symbols associated with El Hierro are Gallotia simonyi machadoi, El Hierro giant lizard, and Juniperus phoenicea, Sabina.

More information: Visit Canary Islands

Why does the lizard stick his tongue out? 

The lizard sticks its tongue out because that's the way 

its listening and looking and tasting its environment. 

It's its means of appreciating what's in front of it.

William Shatner