Story
The story of Teide National Park
For the Guanches, this landscape was sacred – and frightening. They believed the volcano at its centre was the gate to hell, which they called Echeyde. Today Teide National Park is the most visited national park in Spain.
It covers 18,990 hectares around Mount Teide, the highest mountain in Spain, and also includes Pico Viejo, at 3,135 metres the second highest volcano in the Canary Islands; they are the only two Canarian peaks above 3,000 metres. Important archaeological sites of the Guanches have been found within the park. It was declared a national park on 22 January 1954, received the Council of Europe's highest award for protected areas in 1989, and on 28 June 2007 became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
On a ridge east of Teide stand the telescopes of the Teide Observatory. To climb to the very summit you need a free permit, booked in advance. Stop at a viewpoint and take in the volcanic landscape all around.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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