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Teide National Park
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How it came to be
For the Guanches, the native people of Tenerife, Teide was a sacred mountain and the home of the evil being Guayota. Stone tools and pottery found in hiding places on the mountain have been read as ritual offerings against evil spirits. In 1492 the crew of Columbus, sailing to the New World, reported flames rising from the island's highest peak. Spain conquered Tenerife in 1496.
The Teide-Pico Viejo stratovolcano rises to 3,718 m, and 7,500 m above the ocean floor, making it the third-tallest volcanic structure in the world. In 1715 the English traveller J. Edens and his party climbed it and reported their observations to the Royal Society. In June 1799 Alexander von Humboldt climbed Teide on his way to South America, and the excursion confirmed the volcanic origin of basalt. UNESCO names Humboldt, Leopold von Buch and Charles Lyell among the scientists whose work is tied to the mountain.
Teide became a national park on 22 January 1954, and in 1989 the Council of Europe awarded it the European Diploma of Protected Areas. The park, covering 18,990 ha, was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2007.
Travellers who came here
- 1799-06
They set out for the summit on 21 June and spent a cold night at the 'Station of the English', where two leaning rocks form a kind of cavern; the next day they examined the crater.
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