15 Surprising Facts About the Canary Islands

In fact, four of them have had active eruptions since the 14th century, the most recent being Tenerife’s Mount Teide in 1909.

And not the other way round, as the wild variety originates from the Macaronesian Islands which include the Canaries.

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.

It was at the battle for Santa Cruz in Tenerife where Nelson lost his armin 1797, together with around 400 men. He also, unsurprisingly, lost the battle.

At 3,718 metres (12,198 feet) high, Mount Teide is taller than any of the mountains on the mainland, including the Pyrenees.

… 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).

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Seawater trapped in the form of a lake 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.

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.

Before humans arrived, the Gallotia giant lizard species roamed the islands, and were thought to have reached around a metre (three feet) in length. Including the tail, the rats were even longer.

Among the islands, Tenerife is the most popular. To put the 12 million into perspective, the native population of the Canary Islands combined is just over 2.1 million.