Digital Collection of Stock Photography
Tenerife Photos Canary Islands
Royalty free stock photographs of many locations in Tenerife and La Gomera, in the Canary Islands. Stock images of the islands of Boa Vista and Sal in Cape Verde Islands are also included. Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma and El Hierro stock photos will soon feature as well.
lightbox
aStore
commissions join us
contact
us
about us
links
|
Switch to Advanced
Search -
|
Custom Search
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brief Tenerife History
Tenerife was born with the rise of three mountain ranges from the sea, Teno, Anaga and Valle de San Lorenzo. The volcanic eruptions of Teide saw the three rock masses joining together around three million years ago.
The first settlers in Tenerife were an ancient people known as the Guanches, around 200 years BC. The Roman Emperor, Juba II, sent an expedition to the Canary Islands and they immediately referred to the island as 'Canaria' due to the many ferocious dogs they saw. The Romans also called Tenerife, Nivaria which comes from the Latin words of Nivis, Nix and Nieve, which means snow. It has also been referred to as the Island of Hell - Isla del Inferno - in reference to the volcanic activity of Teide in the past.
The people of La Palma, the Benehaorits, called the volcano 'Tene', meaning mountain and 'ife', meaning white. Then these two words had the letter 'r' joining them to how we know it today, Tenerife.
The Guanches fought back an attack by Spain and crushed the first attempt in the battle of Acentejo in 1494. They were eventually beaten the following year due to superior forces and technology. They also fell to diseases which they had no immunity against. They surrendered on Christmas Day 1495. Many Guanches were then enslaved. A new population grew from people coming from the Spanish mainland, Portugal, Flanders and Italy. This growth meant the cutting down of Tenerife's forests to make way for agriculture like sugar cane and later followed by wine, cochineal and bananas.
At the end of the 18th century, British forces attacked Tenerife and Horatio Nelson notoriously lost his right arm during one of the many battles. The defenders held off the attack. Many other attacks were made by the British. One such attack was off the coast of Los Gigantes where the inhabitants of Santiago del Teide threw rocks at the British from the famous cliffs.
The Canarias fell during the Spanish Civil War to the nationalists in July 1936. Anyone opposing the new regime were simply executed. During the 1950's, the Canary Islands were suffering badly from the post civil war years, so many inhabitants left its shores for Cuba and South America.
Around a hundred years before the conquest, the name of 'mencey' was given to the ruling king of the Guanches who ruled the 'menceyato' or territory. Tinerfe el Grande, who was son of the ruler Sunta, governed Tenerife from the south area called Adeje. When he died, the rivalry between his nine children saw the island divided into nine menceyatos, which are similar to the principalities known today. These nine areas were Abona, Adeje, Anaga, Daute, Icode, Guimar, Taoro, Tacoronte and Tegueste.
Today, these areas are
Abona - Fasnia, Arico, Granadilla, San Miguel de Abona and Arona.
Acentejo, Los Realejos and Santa Ursula
Adeje - Guia de Isora, Adeje and Vilaflor.
Anaga - Santa Cruz and San Cristobal de Laguna.
Daute - El Tanque, Los Silos, Buenavisata del Norte and Santiago del Teide.
Guimar - El Rosario, Candelaria, Arafo and Guimar.
Icode - San Juan de la Rambla, La Guancha and Icod de los Vinos.
Taoro - Puerto de la Cruz, La Orotava, La Victoria de Acentejo, La Matanza de Tegueste - Coastal part of La Laguna and Tegueste.
Tacoronte - El Sauzal and Tacoronte.
A notable modern date is March 27, 1977. This event was the crash of two jumbo jets at Los Rodeos, Tenerife North Airport. A KLM and PanAm Boeing 747 collided on the fog bound runway resulting in the deaths of 583 passengers and crew. To this day, it is the worst aircraft collision disaster in history.
Today, Tenerife has many industries which contribute to its day to day existence, tourism, petroleum and agriculture. Tourism is major factor to the economy with visitors coming from the Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom. There are increasing numbers from the Soviet states. The Canarian Parliament passed a law which means that any new hotels built, should be of five star quality with golf or congress facilities and so improve the standard of tourism in the country.
Further Articles
Tenerife was born with the rise of three mountain ranges from the sea, Teno, Anaga and Valle de San Lorenzo. The volcanic eruptions of Teide saw the three rock masses joining together around three million years ago.
The first settlers in Tenerife were an ancient people known as the Guanches, around 200 years BC. The Roman Emperor, Juba II, sent an expedition to the Canary Islands and they immediately referred to the island as 'Canaria' due to the many ferocious dogs they saw. The Romans also called Tenerife, Nivaria which comes from the Latin words of Nivis, Nix and Nieve, which means snow. It has also been referred to as the Island of Hell - Isla del Inferno - in reference to the volcanic activity of Teide in the past.
The people of La Palma, the Benehaorits, called the volcano 'Tene', meaning mountain and 'ife', meaning white. Then these two words had the letter 'r' joining them to how we know it today, Tenerife.
The Guanches fought back an attack by Spain and crushed the first attempt in the battle of Acentejo in 1494. They were eventually beaten the following year due to superior forces and technology. They also fell to diseases which they had no immunity against. They surrendered on Christmas Day 1495. Many Guanches were then enslaved. A new population grew from people coming from the Spanish mainland, Portugal, Flanders and Italy. This growth meant the cutting down of Tenerife's forests to make way for agriculture like sugar cane and later followed by wine, cochineal and bananas.
At the end of the 18th century, British forces attacked Tenerife and Horatio Nelson notoriously lost his right arm during one of the many battles. The defenders held off the attack. Many other attacks were made by the British. One such attack was off the coast of Los Gigantes where the inhabitants of Santiago del Teide threw rocks at the British from the famous cliffs.
The Canarias fell during the Spanish Civil War to the nationalists in July 1936. Anyone opposing the new regime were simply executed. During the 1950's, the Canary Islands were suffering badly from the post civil war years, so many inhabitants left its shores for Cuba and South America.
Around a hundred years before the conquest, the name of 'mencey' was given to the ruling king of the Guanches who ruled the 'menceyato' or territory. Tinerfe el Grande, who was son of the ruler Sunta, governed Tenerife from the south area called Adeje. When he died, the rivalry between his nine children saw the island divided into nine menceyatos, which are similar to the principalities known today. These nine areas were Abona, Adeje, Anaga, Daute, Icode, Guimar, Taoro, Tacoronte and Tegueste.
Today, these areas are
Abona - Fasnia, Arico, Granadilla, San Miguel de Abona and Arona.
Acentejo, Los Realejos and Santa Ursula
Adeje - Guia de Isora, Adeje and Vilaflor.
Anaga - Santa Cruz and San Cristobal de Laguna.
Daute - El Tanque, Los Silos, Buenavisata del Norte and Santiago del Teide.
Guimar - El Rosario, Candelaria, Arafo and Guimar.
Icode - San Juan de la Rambla, La Guancha and Icod de los Vinos.
Taoro - Puerto de la Cruz, La Orotava, La Victoria de Acentejo, La Matanza de Tegueste - Coastal part of La Laguna and Tegueste.
Tacoronte - El Sauzal and Tacoronte.
A notable modern date is March 27, 1977. This event was the crash of two jumbo jets at Los Rodeos, Tenerife North Airport. A KLM and PanAm Boeing 747 collided on the fog bound runway resulting in the deaths of 583 passengers and crew. To this day, it is the worst aircraft collision disaster in history.
Today, Tenerife has many industries which contribute to its day to day existence, tourism, petroleum and agriculture. Tourism is major factor to the economy with visitors coming from the Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom. There are increasing numbers from the Soviet states. The Canarian Parliament passed a law which means that any new hotels built, should be of five star quality with golf or congress facilities and so improve the standard of tourism in the country.
Further Articles