The Guanches: Tenerife's Ancient People and Where to Meet Them

Long before the resorts, Tenerife had a native people: the Guanches. Thought to have arrived from North Africa more than two thousand years ago, they lived in caves, farmed volcanic slopes and mummified their dead — and their descendants still live on the island today. The Spanish conquest of 1496 ended their independence, but their legacy is everywhere if you know where to look.

The story in a nutshell

The Guanches were tall, fair-haired Berber people who reached the Canaries probably as early as 1,000 BC. They had no metal, no boats to leave the island and no written language, so they left almost no documents — only bones, tools and the Spanish chronicles of the conquest. They lived in family caves across the mountains, kept goats and ate gofio (roasted grain), and practised mummification of their dead, a ritual that surprised the first Europeans.

Where to meet them

• Museum of Nature and Man — in Santa Cruz, this is the island's essential stop: the finest collection of Guanche mummies and pre-Hispanic artefacts in the Canaries, with detailed displays on daily life, burial and the conquest.
• Pirámides de Güímar — six mysterious stone step-pyramids in eastern Tenerife, studied by the explorer Thor Heyerdahl, with an ethnographic park exploring the island's links to the ancient world.
• Casa Lercaro — the Museum of History and Anthropology in a 16th-century La Laguna mansion, telling the story from the Guanche era through the conquest and colonial centuries.
• Chinamada Cave Houses — in the Anaga mountains, around 30 cave dwellings carved into the hillside are still lived in today; a living link to the Guanche way of building.
• Cueva del Viento — the largest lava tube in Europe, once used by the Guanches for shelter and ritual.

Deeper into the landscape

The Guanches' spiritual world was tied to the island's landmarks. They called the Teide volcano Echeyde and believed it to be the home of the god of fire and evil; the Anaga mountains were their most densely populated realm. The shrine of Our Lady of Candelaria — the island's patron saint, venerated by Guanche menceys before the conquest — stands where they worshipped before it. And their festivals live on in events like Día de Canarias, the celebration of island identity each 30 May.

For history-lovers

To set the scene, spend time in the island's historic capitals — La Laguna, the UNESCO old town, and Santa Cruz. The conquest, the menceys and the resistance are the single most fascinating story in Tenerife's history, and it is only a day's visiting to trace it from the museum to the mountains.