15 Surprising Facts

About the Canary

Islands

As well as attracting millions of

holidaymakers every year, the Canary
Islands have a particularly interesting
history, dramatic geography, and a
veritable goldmine of fascinating
facts. Here are 15 of the more
surprising things about this Atlantic
archipelago.
 ALL OF THE CANARY ISLANDS WERE FORMED FROM VOLCANIC
ERUPTIONS
IN FACT, FOUR OF THEM HAVE HAD ACTIVE ERUPTIONS SINCE THE
14TH CENTURY, THE MOST RECENT BEING TENERIFE’S MOUNT TEIDE
IN 1909.

THE CANARY BIRD WAS NAMED AFTER THE ISLANDS

AND NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND, AS THE WILD VARIETY
ORIGINATES FROM THE MACARONESIAN ISLANDS WHICH INCLUDE
THE CANARIES.

THEY THEY WERE NAMED FROM THE LATIN WORD FOR DOG –
CANARIA (PROBABLY)
NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE, OR IS ENTIRELY SURE WHY, BUT A
THEORY SUGGESTS IT WAS DO TO WITH THE SEAL POPULATION, OR
‘SEA DOGS’, THAT USED TO INHABIT THE ISLAND.


The Canary Islands have the
Nelson lost his arm here highest point in the Spanish
It was at the battle for Santa territories
Cruz in Tenerife where Nelson At 3,718 metres (12,198 feet)
lost his armin 1797, together high, Mount Teide is taller
with around 400 men. He also, than any of the mountains on
unsurprisingly, lost the battle. the mainland, including the

Pyrenees.

The islands sit just 100

kilometres (62 miles)
from the African
continent…
… but they are a full 1,700
kilometres (1,056 miles)
from the Spanish
mainland. You can even
get a ferry between
Fuerteventura and
Morocco in under four
hours (it takes around 20
hours from Spain).

El Hierro is close to being energy self-

sufficient
The smallest and most southernly of the
islands sources most all of its power from
wind, sun, and water.

They’re home to a whistling language

The island of La Gomera developed this
form of language in order to communicate
across the wide valleys. It is called ‘Silbo
Gomero’ and is actually a whistling form of
Castilian Spanish, used to convey
announcements and pieces of news.


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS USED THE

ISLANDS AS A STOPOVER ON HIS
WAY TO THE AMERICAS
THE ISLANDS WERE ALSO
COLONISED CONCURRENTLY WITH
THE AMERICAN CONTINENT, AND
THERE ARE LOTS OF PARALLELS TO
BE FOUND IN ARCHITECTURE AND
ACCENTS WITH MODERN-DAY LATIN
AMERICA.

 THE WORLD’S WORST EVER AVIATION DISASTER HAPPENED IN

TENERIFE
ON MARCH 27, 1977 TWO BOEING 747S COLLIDED ON A FOGGY
AIRPORT RUNWAY. 583 PEOPLE WERE KILLED WHILE ONE OF THE
PLANES WAS TAKING OFF. INVESTIGATIONS REVEALS SEVERAL
REASONS FOR THE ACCIDENT, WHICH LED TO MANY CHANGES IN
HOW PILOTS AND FLIGHT CONTROL TOWERS COMMUNICATE.

THE ISLANDS HAVE THEIR OWN MICRO-CLIMATES

THESE RANGE FROM ARID MOON-LIKE DESERTS TO LUSH
RAINFORESTS. SOME, LIKE TENERIFE’S, EVEN HAVE MORE THAN ONE
DEPENDING ON WHICH SIDE OF MOUNT TEIDE YOU’RE ON.
They’re famous in Hollywood
Thanks to their dramatic and varying
landscapes,movies as far back as One
Million Years BC (1966) to the likes of
The Land That Time Forgot (1975),
Clash of the Titans (2010), and most
recently Fast & Furious 6 (2013) have
been filmed on various islands.

The water in
Lanzarote’s El
Golfo crater glows
green
Seawater trapped in the form of a lake
thought to have reached around a
has turned an acid green colour due to
the algae which lives there. It also
creates a particularly striking contrasts
to the surrounding black volcanic rock of
the Playa Charco de los Ciclos.
Thank you for
attention!
As many as 12 million
They were home to now-extinct
visitors arrive every year
giant species of lizards and rats
Before humans arrived, the
Among the islands,
Tenerife is the most
Gallotia giant lizard species
popular. To put the 12
roamed the islands, and were
million into perspective,
the native population of
metre (three feet) in length.
the Canary Islands
Including the tail, the rats were
combined is just over 2.1
even longer.
million.