Tenerife

Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands, located off the coast of Morocco, Africa.

In Ptolemy's Geographia (c.150 CE), the Roman Prime Meridian or Zero Degrees Longitude, is based in the ‘Fortunate Islands‘, usually thought to have been the Canary Islands, and centred on Mount Teide in Tenerife.

Mount Teide is an active volcano, with its last eruption occurring in 1909 CE.
The Mountain is 12,198 feet (3,718 m) high, with its peak is often covered in snow. This makes Tenerife the highest Island in the Atlantic, and a navigation mark to shipping.
Mount Teide and the surrounding area are part of the Teide National Park.

The Guanches were a Berber People thought to have occupied the Canary Islands since 1,000 BCE.
In Guanche Mythology, Mount Teide was considered to be a sacred mountain, which was a pillar holding up the sky. They believed the Devil, Guayota, lived at the top of the volcano, which itself, represented Hell known as ‘Echeyde’. The Guanches practiced embalming and mummification of their dead.
Tenerife was divided into nine Kingdoms each ruled by a ‘Mencey’ or King.
The ancient Zanata Stone, found in 1992 CE, has an image of a fish and lettering of a script called Tifinagh, which is still actively used amongst Berber Peoples today. The Stele has been dated to between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE.

The ‘Fortunate Islands‘ or ‘Islands of the Blessed’ may refer to either the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, Madeira or the Azores.
In Greek Mythology, they were associated with Elysium or the Elysian Fields, where Greek Heroes who had been reincarnated twice retired to an afterlife in a land with no winters.

Pliny the Elder
- He described an Expedition in 50 BCE to the Canary Islands), by Juba II of Mauretania, who appeared to have found the Ruins of large buildings, although Pliny does not describe the Guanches.
Plutarch
- Describes, in his ‘Life of Sertorius’, two Islands in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa called the Fortunate Islands, and suggests they must be Elysium. His description of their climate matches that of the Canary Islands.

Tenerife