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Tenerife Travel Guide

Travel to Tenerife - Tropical Beaches and Snow-Capped El Tiede

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Tenerife is the largest of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, with Santa Cruz de Tenerife as its capital, the head of the island government, and officially co-capital of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands together Las Palmas de Gran Canari. It is situated slightly to the north of the Tropic of Cancer, occupying a central position between the other Canary Islands of Gran Canaria, La Gomera, and La Palma. Covering a surface area of 2 034.38 square kilometres, the island is located some 300 kilometres from the African continent, and approximately 1 000 kilometres from the Iberian Peninsula.

The oldest mountain ranges in Tenerife rose from the Atlantic Ocean by volcanic eruption which gave birth to the island around twelve million years ago. Tenerife, as it is today, was formed three million years ago by the fusion of three different islands, with the mountain ranges of Anaga, Teno, and Valle de San Lorenzo.Volcanic activity from Teide was responsible for this movement and the islands became one, Tenerife.

The earliest known settlement in the islands dates to around 200 BC, by a tribe known as the Guanche, characteristically tall, powerfully built Scandinavian-looking people with blue eyes and long, fair hair. They were an uncivilised people, even by Stone Age comparison and dressed in animal hides, living in caves on the island. According to legend, many islands in the chain, including Tenerife, were believed to be the uppermost peaks of Atlantis, which catastrophically sank under the ocean leaving only the highest mountains above sea level.