Did you know that there are pyramids in Tenerife? Get to know the pyramid of Güímar

When we talk about pyramids, it is inevitable to think of the famous pyramids of Giza in Egypt. In a kind of reverie we find ourselves admiring the three beautiful stone masses of Cheops, Khafre and Menkaure. However, it is not the only place where there is an ancient building, also in Spain I found the traces of the mystery of these architectural works.

The mysterious pyramids of Tenerife are located in the municipality of Güímar, on the southeast coast of the island, 30 kilometers from the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The so-called “Pirámides de Güímar” are today declared an Asset of Cultural Interest within the Güímar Enographic Park, which also, curiously, are astronomically oriented.

The mystery behind the pyramids of Güímar

The mysterious buildings of Güímar are pyramids of mastaba type construction. These pyramids are well known among national archaeologists along with the knowledge deposit that they themselves represent.

Dr. Thot Heyerdahl, in charge of carrying out an intense investigation of the pyramids of Tucume in Peru, immediately recognized its archaeological value in the construction of Güímar.

At first, according to Heyerdahl, the pyramids were classified as a simple accumulation of rubble. Obviously it was an uneducated, hasty and little studied vision of the enclosure. Later it was seen its similarities with the pyramids of Mexico, Peru, the Egyptian mastabas or the Mesopotamian ziggurats.

A site of great archaeological value

In 1991, researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias investigated the strange constructions and discovered their astronomical orientation. These indicate on one side the sunrise on the day of the summer solstice, and on the other the sunrise on the day of the winter solstice.

The description of the phenomenon that they carried out was: “the sun sets first behind a ledge on the edge of the Pedro Gil caldera, then reappears for an instant after overcoming said ledge and finally hides at the bottom of the caldera”. This finding made scholars think that it was a temple or building for rituals.

There is a document of purchase and sale of the farm where the pyramids are located, dating from 1854 but in which there is no description in relation to the existence of the pyramids. It was until 1881 when they are described in a text. The most skeptical cipher or date its construction between the years 1856 and 1878.

The look of modern archeology

Officially the pyramids, for modern archeology, would be a pile of rocks from the cleaning of the nearby fields, these constructions would be called by the locals as walls, molleros or majanos.

There is no argumentative evidence that indicates at present that they have been built by the Guanches. Today, in the Ethnological Center there are two pavilions with models of Thor Heyerdahl’s boats together with a life-scale reproduction of the Ra II boat.

In other rooms different objects related to other cultures of the world are shown, highlights a staging of a Mayan sacrifice and the game of the canary stick with two wax sculptures representing two Guanches.

A work of the ancient Guanches

For Thor Heyerdahl the pyramids could have been constructions of the ancient Guanches, who would have lived in a cave under one of the pyramids. This would have been the official residence of one of the ten kings, or menceys, of Tenerife until the conquest of the archipelago by the Spanish in the 15th century. This primitive community is believed to have lived in a cave under one of the pyramids.

Until the Spanish conquest at the end of the 15th century, Heyerdahl proposed that the Canary Islands would have served as a bridge between the navigation of America and the Mediterranean. It was the fastest route to the Americas, which Christopher Columbus himself would take in 1492 on his exploratory journey.

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