Discover An Intriguing History With Your Lanzarote Holidays

By Author: Daisy Wilkinson
Total Articles: 171
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A Spanish island located in the Atlantic Ocean, Lanzarote is one of the Canary Islands located off the African north coast. It is the fourth largest of all the islands in the archipelago of Canary Islands. One of its main attractions is the Timanfaya National Park, located in the centre-west of the island. According to the historical records, this island was first named Insula de Lanzarotus Marocelus. In the native language, the name of this island was Tyterogaka or Tytheroygaka, which literally translates as 'one that is all ochre'. This refers to the predominant ochre shades of the island, which you’ll get to see at several places.

Your cheap holidays to Lanzarote would give you the chance to explore the island's interesting history. The first human settlement in the whole of Canary Islands happened on this particular island. Although there is no material evidence, many believe that the first to settle on the island were the Phoenicians. Pliny the Elder, a Roman author, was the first to record the existence of this island. Following ...
... the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the islands of the Canaries were largely ignored until the end of the 10th century, when the Arabs arrived on Lanzarote and named it 'al-Djezir al-Khalida'.

In the year 1336, a ship arrived at the island from Lisbon under the guidance of Lancelotto Malocello, a Genoese navigator who was known by the alias 'Lanzarote da Framqua'. You'll get to visit a fort that was later built in the Montana de Guanapay area during your Lanzarote holidays. During the years 1385 and 1393, many of the members of Majos tribe of the Guanches were captured and sold as slaves in Spain. In the early 15th century, the Castilians fought the local Guanches and conquered the island. They ruled over the island until the end of the 18th century.

During the years 1730 to 1736, this island was devastated by a series of volcanic eruptions, which were documented in detail by Don Andres Lorenzo Curbelo, the priest of Yaiza. During your Lanzarote holidays, you'll be able to know the things that he documented during the guided tours. As a result of these eruptions, a quarter of Lanzarote's surface was covered by lava, thus destroying the fertile soil and 11 villages. Many of the inhabitants of the island were forced to migrate to the Americas and Cuba owing to the destruction caused by these volcanic eruptions.

Lanzarote and Fuerteventura became a part of the Las Palmas province in the year 1927. In the following years, many archaeological expeditions were carried out in the village of Teguise. A team from the University of Zaragoza and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria discovered about a hundred Roman potsherds, a piece of glass, and 9 pieces of metal. These archaeological finds point out to the fact that the Romans traded with the inhabitants of the Canary Islands, although evidence of this has not been established yet. In recent times, the island of Lanzarote has been declared as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.