Canary Islands Holidays

In Tenerife, the largest island in the Canaries in the Atlantic Ocean, is a charming town called Guimar. Part of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife province, it is located at the southeastern area of the island. You can reach it through the new TF1 Motorway superhighway. It is also connected with the older highway that also links Arona and Santa Cruz City.

What is so special about this town that makes it an excellent destination when enjoying holidays to Tenerife? Well, Guimar, particularly in the district of Chacona, is the area where the mystifying Pyramids of Guimar. Distinct from the pyramids of Egypt, the Pyramids of Guimar is a variety of six rectangular terraced structures that are made out of lava stone without the use of a binding agent like People said that these terraces are used for agriculture in the past. Yet recent excavations and studies have proved that they might be more than just agricultural structures.

The Pyramids of Guimar were first seriously researched by Thor Heyerdahl, a well-known and publisher. He explained that due to the fact the Guimar pyramids share a similar architecture to the pyramids in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the Guimar pyramids may be a ceremonial area.

A year later, Canary Institute of Astrophysics researchers Juan Antonio Belmonte Aviles, Antonio Aparicio Juan, and Cesar Esteban Lopez had a separate study. They noticed that the longer sides of several of the terraced pyramids face the direction of the planet’s solstices. They also noticed that by standing on the top most immense pyramid at daytime during the summer solstice, it is possible to see a sunset twice on the same day. An observer standing on the pyramid’s platform can see the sun go down behind a mountain top, emerges from that mountain’s side, then sets a second time behind a nearby mountain. Other pyramids have stairs that point to the place where the sun rises on both solstices. So they speculated that the pyramids were ancient apparatus of some sort for astronomical observation and study.

Then between 1991 and 1998, excavations near the pyramids revealed ancient remnants of potteries. So they believed that the pyramids were once ancient markets where sellers offer their items.

What were these pyramids really for? As of now, their purpose is anybody’s guess.

Don’t forget to see for yourself the Pyramids of Guimar in Tenerife when enjoying cheap holidays to Spain.