Tenerife

Flag of Tenerife

Tenerife, a Spanish island, is the largest of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.

Geography

It is located at 28°19′N 16°34′W and has a surface area of 2 034 km². Like the rest of the Canary Islands, it is of volcanic origin. The 3 eruptions that created the island finally went quiet about 3.5M years ago, although small murmers occur. The most recent Earthquake of about 4 on the Richter scale was in 2002. The highest point of Spain, Teide (3 718 m), is on this island.

The island is part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It includes 31 municipalities:

The Anaga Mountain Range in the north of Tenerife

A snowcovered Teide Mountain from the air

Adeje Arafo Arico Arona Buenavista del Norte Candelaria Fasnia Garachico Granadilla de Abona La Guancha Los Cristianos Guía de Isora Güímar Icod de los Vinos La Matanza de Acentejo La Orotava Playa de las Americas

Puerto de la Cruz Los Realejos El Rosario San Cristóbal de La Laguna San Juan de la Rambla San Miguel de Abona Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Úrsula Santiago del Teide El Sauzal Los Silos Tacoronte El Tanque Tegueste La Victoria de Acentejo Vilaflor

The largest city, Santa Cruz, is the capital of the island and seat of the cabildo insular (island government); it is also the capital of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and officially co-capital of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands together with Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, although clearly behind this one in terms of population, industry, tourism or gross domestic produce.

The village Güímar is the site of the mysterious Pyramids of Güímar.

The island's population is 778,071.

Tourism

Tourism is concentrated more in the south of the island, which is hotter and drier and especially around Playa de las Americas, and Los Cristianos. More recently coastal development has grown northwards from Playa de las Americas and now encompasses the former small enclave of La Caletta.

In the north of the island the main development for tourism has been in the town of Puerto de la Cruz .

Transportation

The island of Tenerife is served by two airports, the Los Rodeos or Tenerife Norte and the Reina Sofia Airport or Tenerife Sur.

A fast, toll-free motorway (autopista del sur and autopista del norte) almost encircles the island, linking all the main towns. The exception is in the west from Adeje to Icod de los Vinos, which is traversed by a smaller mountain road. However, plans are now afoot to complete the autopista, which is causing heavy debate between the environmentalists and the local businessmen. This, however, pales in comparison to the heated discussions concering the planned port in Granadilla, which is now in the hands of Brussels.

Away from the major highway, driving is generally slow and difficult, with steep, winding narrow roads, mainly unlit and often with drops either side of the main carriageway surface.

Public transport on the island is provided by a network of buses (Guaguas) and run by T.I.T.S.A. who operate a fleet of modern, air-conditioned buses which, generally, run on time. Drivers are helpful and the mix of tourists and 'locals' (especially in the resort areas) makes for an interesting ride, not to mention it being one of the best ways to actually see the island. Santa cruz will have a tranvia (railway) about 2007 too.

History

Alonso Fernández de Lugo presenting the captured native kings of Tenerife to Ferdinand and Isabella

Known to the Romans as Nivaria (from the Latin nix, nivis, "snow"), a reference to the snows atop the volcano known as El Teide, Tenerife bears a name that is also a reference to this volcano, and was used for the island by the Guanches of the neighboring island of La Palma, “Tene” signifying “mountain” and “ife” white (the “r” was added by the Spanish). To the natives of Tenerife, the island was known as Chenech, Chinech or Achinech.

Tenerife at the time of its conquest was comprised of nine distinct menceyatos, as the small kingdoms of the Guanches were known. Though the Spanish forces under the Adelantado ("military governor") Alonso Fernández de Lugo, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Guanches in the First Battle of Acentejo in 1494, the Guanches, eventually overcome by superior technology and diseases to which they were not immune, surrendered to the Crown of Castile on December 25, 1495.

As on the other islands of the same group, much of the native population of Tenerife was enslaved or succumbed to diseases at the same time as immigrants from various associated parts of the Spanish Empire (Portugal, Flanders, Italy, Germany) settled on the island. Native pine forests on the island were cleared to make way for the cultivation of sugarcane in the 1520s; in succeeding centuries, the island’s economy was centered around the cultivation of other commodities such as wine and cochineal for making dyes, as well as bananas.

The island was attacked in 1797 by the British. On July 25, Horatio Nelson attacked Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital town of Tenerife and headquarters of the Captain General. After a fierce engagement, the British were repelled; Nelson lost his right arm as he tried to disembark at the shore. On September 5, another attempted landing in the region of Puerto Santiago was fended off by the inhabitants of the Valley of Santiago, who hurled stones at the British from the heights of the cliffs of Los Gigantes.

Less hostile visitors arrived at the island in succeeding centuries. The naturalist Alexander von Humboldt ascended the peak of the Teide and remarked on the beauty of the island. Tourists began visiting Tenerife in large numbers in the 1890s, especially the northern towns of Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Before his rise to power, Francisco Franco was posted to Tenerife in March 1936 by a Republican government wary of his influence and political leanings. In Tenerife, Franco received information and agreed to collaborate in the military coup that would result in the Spanish Civil War; the Canaries fell to the Nationalists in July 1936 and its population was subject to the mass executions of opponents to the new regime. In the 1950s, the misery of the post-war years caused thousands of the island’s inhabitants to emigrate to Cuba and Latin America.

The airline collision that took place on March 27, 1977, in Los Rodeos, an airport in the north of the island, known as the Tenerife disaster, was the deadliest aircraft disaster in history until the September 11, 2001 attacks and remains the deadliest aviation accident in history.

Other

The fictional island Kolgugev from the Video Game Operation Flashpoint is based on Tenerife.

See also

• Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
• Observatorio del Teide

External links

• Cabildo de Tenerife (Spanish) Tenerife Island Governing Council
• Boroughs Directory (Spanish) List of links to all Municipalities (Local Authorities) in the Island.
• Tenerife PuntoInfo (Multilingual) Official Governmental Tourist Information Service
• La Laguna University (Spanish)
• Pico del Teide (English)