The volcanic action has been the principal cause for geological formation in Lanzarote, that has its origin about nineteen million years ago and makes it the oldest island of the Canary Archipelago. Rivers of incandescent lava modified this shape of the island until the last eruption in 1824, when the Volcano TinguatĂłn , located in the municipality of Tinajo, erupted.
The eruptions of the 18th and 19th centuries transformed a great part of the landscape of Lanzarote, covering a dozen villages and a part of the richest agricultural area of the island. A cloud of ashes and volcanic rest stood still over an extension of 200 Km2 forming the “MalpaĂs” (badlands) of the Fire Mountains, today the National Park of Timanfaya
More than a hundred new craters came up to the surface in Timanfaya from 1730 to 1736. That is why the park has a spectacular lunar aspect with different tones of ochre and grey and most of all its frightening silence.
Although the volcanic activity has stopped in Lanzarote, researches are still studying the micro earthquakes that happen on the surface of the Earth’s crust, of interest for scientific but harmless for the island people. On the contrary thermic anomalies are amusing for the visitors that watch a bit of water introduced in a hole on the ground becoming a geyser of boiling steam in seconds, due to a magmatic camera situated three kilometres deep down that reaches from 100 to 200 degrees.
On the Timanfaya area, declared National Park in 1974, ICONA and the Council of Lanzarote which is the most important organization of the insular Government, organize the visits by local coaches along the areas of Fire Mountains, on the volcano itinerary.
The visitor is deeply impressed by the rustic nature as well as by the recorded explanations he will hear along the tour, of the priest of Yaiza who lived an eruption that affected great part of the south of the island. After the tour among craters it is necessary to visit the mirador restaurant “El Diablo” where the visior can eat delicious specialities of the island cooked with the heat that comes from the bowels of the earth, and the crafts shop, both placed on a small hill known as Hilario islet.
The architectural complex Fire Mountains is another of the space works of CĂ©sar Manrique, who the same as he did with the “Mirador del RĂo” converted the building into another element of the landscape, when he covered it with volcanic rocks and glass. The dinning room, of circular plant, offers wonderful views of the lunar landscape of Lanzarote, whose spirit of still life was introduced right to the centre of the restaurant by CĂ©sar, whe he put a dry fig tree next to a dromedary skeleton both protected by a glass window
The park contains a great diversity of phenemenous in relation with it volcanic origin and surprisingly a great biological variety with 180 species of vegetation, fighting to survive in a land apparently infertile.
People arriving to r leaving the park from Yaiza will find the “echadero de camellos” and the possibility of making a short tur riding a dromedary on the south side of Timanfaya to experiment the sensation of being riding on an animal that was widely used on the island until 50 years ago.