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Tenerife is the largest island in surface
area in the Canaries and is home to Mt. Teide, which, at 3.717
m, is the highest mountain in Spain. The complex nature of
access and the rugged landscape have led to the conservation
of singular geographical landmarks : the heights of Anaga and
Teno, two lost paradises from the Tertiary Age, where native
plants thrive and the lie of the land is unique. The crest
formed by the north and south slopes is a mountain chain that
culminates in Las Cañadas del Teide and determines the
island's weather.
Despite this, as with practically all the
islands, micro-climates result in the creation of a miniature
continent, crammed with personality, with luxuriant vegetation
and scored by complex terraces, where tradition has forced the
local people to "construct" their own land by "tricking" the
steep hillsides and so be able to grow cereals, vegetables,
potatoes, sugar cane, tobacco, vines, yams, onions and tomato
plants. And when all that was left was a rocky space, there
they built their house. A simple house made from volcanic
stone, with a minimum of wood and tiles, giving the impression
that it has emerged from the basal pit created by the
materials thrown up by the volcano.
And of course, the north and south are not
the same, although both become one in Mt. Teide. Climbing up
from the coast, one route takes you scrambling through
euphorbias and spurges, across rough hillsides, where the
rocks are held together by century-old lichens, up a gentle
slope, beginning at the shore, with its black sand beaches.
The other takes you through fayal-brezal (shrubs and heath),
laurisilva (laurel forest), pine groves and finally brings you
to Teide broom, Teide violets and tajinastes (Vipers Bugloss).
Here the north-facing shoreline is rugged and battered by
heavy seas. These cliffs bear the brunt of the cool trade
winds, loaded with moisture which bring wet fronts that colour
the cliff tops green and keep the woodlands leafy, until they
eventually disappear towards the south.
The Governor Don Alonso Fernández de Lugo
and his troops conquered this island, the largest in the
Macaronesian archipelago of the Canaries, for the Crown of
Castile on 25th July 1496.
With a surface area of 2.036 km2 and a
resident population of 650.000 inhabitants, this island is
made up of 31 boroughs.
The varied weather makes it attractive and
the uneven mountainous terrain means that it is a magical
paradise, enigmatic and surrounded by mystery. There is a
great diversity in native flora and fauna.
The tourist emporiums built up in the north
and south for the enjoyment of outsiders, always accompanied
by the hospitality and kind welcome of the local people.
There is a strong artistic, historical and
musical tradition here..., an important background of folklore
and gastronomy, which combines what is native to the island
with what comes from elsewhere. Tenerife is a mixture of
cosmopolitanism and originality.
In the north-east, the wild, precipitous and
open Anaga peninsula is home to the island's capital city,
which lies on the southern side, at the foot of the central
mountain chain
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