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REGIONS OF SPAIN
	Andalucía Aragón Asturias Baleares Canarias Cantabria Castilla La Mancha Castilla León Cataluña Ceuta Comunidad Valenciana Extremadura Galicia La Rioja Madrid Melilla Murcia Navarra País Vasco
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POPULAR CANARY ISLANDS DESTINATIONS
	Fuerteventura Gran Canaria Lanzarote Tenerife La Palma El Hierro La Gomera
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CANARIES TRAVEL DIRECTORY

Canary Islands

The Spanish island group Islas Canarias, divided by the two provinces Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with at the North of Lanzarote the small islets of the Chinijo Archipelago (Archipiélago Chinijo). The Canary Archipelago (Archipiélago Canario) consists of seven main islands and six small islets of which only La Graciosa is inhabited.

The names of the islands: Province Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. Province Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Isla de los Lobos. Chinijo Archipelago (Archipiélago Chinijo): La Graciosa, La Alegranza, Montaña Clara, Roque del Este and Roque del Oeste. The origins of the Canary Islands are by no means clear, however we do know the islands are estimated to be 40 million years old and created by three big volcanic eruptions in the Atlantic Ocean. The Canary Islands were first discovered by ancient Greek and Roman seafarers, yet it was not until the early 1400's that anyone made a serious attempt to conquer the Canaries. In 1312 the first explorer Lancelotte Malocello from Genoa landed on a island, which later will be called Lanzarote. After that it stayed quiet for almost a century. In 1402, the French explorer Jean de Béthencourt led an expedition to the islands, landing first on the North side of Lanzarote, from there he conquered Fuerteventura and El Hierro. Béthencourt also established a base on the island of La Gomera but it would be many years before the island was truly conquered. Later Christopher Columbus visited the islands several times, as a rest place on his way to explore America. The people of La Gomera as well as the people of Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Palma, resisted the Spanish invaders who came later for almost a century. By 1495 the islands had fallen to Spanish rule.