Pyramids in Spain


Six step pyramids, made of black volcanic stones, were discovered in 1998 near Guimar, a town on the eastern shore of Tenerife Island, about 40kilometers (24 miles) south of Santa Cruz de Tenerife - the Canary Islands.

According to the London Times, "Spain's Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa hardly seem a place for pyramids, but there seem to be six of them on Tenerife."

"The inhabitants have generally ignored these dilapidated piles of black volcanic stones. However, one perceptive native described them to Thor Heyerdahl of Kon Tiki fame and a leading proponent of cultural diffusion across all oceans."

"Quick to respond, Heyerdahl perceived amid the debris six stepped pyramids of black stone. He persuaded a Norwegian businessman to buy the site, clean up the debris of centuries and found a museum."

"One of the 'black' pyramids has now been restored, but some experts are still unconvinced. However, recent excavations under one pyramid have yielded artifacts identified with" the Guanches, "the pre-Spanish inhabitants of Tenerife."

Thor Heyerdahl l, who has done extensive research on the pyramids and concluded they were neither terraces nor random piles of stone cleared by the Spaniards, as some had tried to explain them away. They were painstakingly built step-pyramids, constructed according to similar principles as those of Mexico, Peru, and ancient Mesopotamia. He is not sure why they were built.

Evidence leads Heyerdahl and others involved in the project to believe that these pyramids may be remains from pre-European voyagers who sailed the Atlantic in ancient times, and may have possibly forged a link with the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas.

Among the original inhabitants of the Canaries many were fair-haired and bearded, and probably related to the Berbers who inhabited the coastal areas of North Africa before the Arab conquest. Is it possible that long before the 15th century, people of the same stock as those who settled the Canary Islands also sailed the same route along the Canary Current that Columbus took to the Americas?

Columbus' starting off point was the Canaries, where his ships got supplies and water on Gomera, the island next to Tenerife. The Guanches on Tenerife in 1492 did not permit Columbus or any other Europeans to land on their island. They were not impressed by the physical appearance of the bearded Europeans, who looked like the Guanches themselves. But when Columbus and the Europeans who followed in his wake landed in the New World they were welcomed and initially worshipped as gods, since the beardless Indians they encountered believed that the Spanish belonged to the same people as the legendary founders of their civilization, bearded men from across the Atlantic Ocean.

The priority is to preserve the pyramids, which were slated for destruction to make way for urban development. Two of the smaller pyramids, which were partially damaged in recent decades, have also been restored.

A historic building at the site has been restored to house a museum. The exhibits will present the evidence and arguments for ideas about the spread of culture and ideas in ancient times, including examples of cultural parallels in art and other archaeological materials from across the oceans, models of ancient watercraft, and illustrations of stepped pyramids from around the world. The second floor contains the FERCO headquarters and an archaeological library.

About the pyramids -

Far from being piles of unworked rubble, every stone was turned with its flat side out and placed together by stone masons.

With slopes of the volcano Mt. Teide at their back and facing the Atlantic, the edifices are precisely aligned according to the sunset on the summer solstice, as are other sacred structures in different parts of the world.

Carefully built stairways on the west side of each pyramid lead up to the summit, which is not a pile of stones, but a perfectly flat platform covered with gravel, as though for ceremonial performances and/or sun worship.

The stones were not weather-worn, rounded boulders, such as farmers had found in the fields, but sharp fragments of lava, and some of the corner stones had been trimmed.

Archaeologists from the University of La Laguna were contracted to do test excavations of a ceremonial platform between two of the pyramids. As predicted by Dr. Heyerdahl, they found that rather than being a random pile of stones as they had expected, it was built of blocks, gravel and earth.

Skeptics had to admit that this was definitely some kind of ceremonial architecture. Yet some still refused to admit that such impressive structures could have been built by the Guanche, the original inhabitants of Tenerife, and suggested that they might have been constructed by the early Christian conquistadores as a time measuring device to know when to celebrate the Catholic festivities of St. John.



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