Canary Island Lanzarote

Lanzarote is an island in the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of southern Morocco. It belongs to the province of Las Palmas. Its capital is Arrecife.
The name of the island seems to come from a Genoese sailor Lanceloto Malocello, who visited the island in the 16th century.

Lanzarote is the northernmost and easternmost of the Canary archipelago. It is popularly known as “the island of volcanoes, by identifying with the volcanic mantle that extends along much of its surface due to volcanic activity in the early eighteenth century.

Lanzarote is located at a distance of 140 km offshore northwest Africa and 1000km from the nearest point on the European continent, south of the Iberian Peninsula. Its northernmost point is Cape Point or Fariones, and the southernmost, Punta del Papagayo. Its subtropical climate with little rain. It has an area of 845.93 km ² and a population of 139,506 inhabitants (2008).

North of the island are smaller islets and islands of Montana Clara, Alegranza, Roque del Este, La Graciosa, and Roque del Oeste, which form the archipelago Chinijo administratively dependent on Lanzarote.
The Sorrows of Chache, with 670 m of altitude, is the highest peak of the island.

In 1993 Lanzarote was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. In addition, the Network of Protected Natural Areas Canaria on this island contains a total of 13 natural environments, which represent 40% of the islands, most notably the National Park of Timanfaya.
Dedicated in the past mainly to agriculture and fisheries in the Canary-Saharan fishing bank, currently the island’s economy revolves around services, primarily to strong tourism industry.

The island has airport-Guacimeta Lanzarote, in the municipality of San Bartolome and to seaports: Port of the Marbles in the city of Arrecife, and the port of Playa Blanca in the municipality of Yaiza.

The explanation of the name of the island of Lanzarote is the most clear and accepted as are all the names of the Canary archipelago. There is consensus among historians that the name comes from Malocello Lanceloto a Genoese sailor, who first visited in the first third of the fourteenth century and whose presence apparently found some trace the first Norman conquerors:

Guanapay Castle, Lanzarote’s oldest, would have been built on an ancient tower built in 1312 by Malocello. The island is called “Insula of Lançarotus Marocelus” in the first portolano who picks up the Canary Islands more or less in its present form, the Majorcan Dulcert Angelino, 1339. In other letters and maps that name after suffering phonetic alterations, but no doubt that the current name derives from the famous Italian visitor who once called at her.

The Aboriginal word Titerogakaet think it was that used by the majos to refer to the island prior to its conquest. It is a term of Berber origin has been related to the Tuareg tetergaget, “that is burning”, or those titerok and akaet words that mean “Red Mountain”.

Similarly, the island is littered with place names voices of indigenous origin, as Guatiza , Yaiza, Teguise, Tinajo, and Timanfaya, which share the limelight with places like St. Bartholomew Hispanic name or Puerto del Carmen.