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Current Weather
in Tenerife:
General: Known to the
Romans as Nivaria (from the Latin nix, nivis,
"snow"), a reference to the snows atop
the volcano known as El Teide, Tenerife bears
a name that is also a reference to this volcano,
and was used for the island by the Guanches of
the neighboring island of La Palma, “Tene”
signifying “mountain” and “ife”
white (the “r” was added by the Spanish).
To the natives of Tenerife, the island was known
as Chenech, Chinech or Achinech.
Tenerife at the time
of its conquest was comprised of nine distinct
menceyatos, as the small kingdoms of the Guanches
were known. Though the Spanish forces under the
Adelantado ("military governor") Alonso
Fernández de Lugo, suffered a crushing
defeat at the hands of the Guanches in the First
Battle of Acentejo in 1494, the Guanches, eventually
overcome by superior technology and diseases to
which they were not immune, surrendered to the
Crown of Castile on December 25, 1495.
As on the other islands of
the same group, much of the native population
of Tenerife was enslaved or succumbed to diseases
at the same time as immigrants from various associated
parts of the Spanish Empire (Portugal, Flanders,
Italy, Germany) settled on the island. Native
pine forests on the island were cleared to make
way for the cultivation of sugarcane in the 1520s;
in succeeding centuries, the island’s economy
was centered around the cultivation of other commodities
such as wine and cochineal for making dyes, as
well as bananas.
The island was attacked in
1797 by the British. On July 25, Horatio Nelson
attacked Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital town
of Tenerife and headquarters of the Captain General.
After a fierce engagement, the British were repelled;
Nelson lost his right arm as he tried to disembark
at the shore. On September 5, another attempted
landing in the region of Puerto Santiago was fended
off by the inhabitants of the Valley of Santiago,
who hurled stones at the British from the heights
of the cliffs of Los Gigantes.
Less hostile visitors arrived
at the island in succeeding centuries. The naturalist
Alexander von Humboldt ascended the peak of the
Teide and remarked on the beauty of the island.
Tourists began visiting Tenerife in large numbers
in the 1890s, especially the northern towns of
Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Before his rise to power, Francisco
Franco was posted to Tenerife in March 1936 by
a Republican government wary of his influence
and political leanings. In Tenerife, Franco received
information and agreed to collaborate in the military
coup that would result in the Spanish Civil War;
the Canaries fell to the Nationalists in July
1936 and its population was subject to the mass
executions of opponents to the new regime. In
the 1950s, the misery of the post-war years caused
thousands of the island’s inhabitants to
emigrate to Cuba and Latin America.
The airline collision
that took place on March 27, 1977, in Los Rodeos,
an airport in the north of the island, known as
the Tenerife disaster, was the deadliest aircraft
disaster in history until the September 11, 2001
attacks and remains the deadliest aviation accident
in history.
Currency: EURO - The
euro is divided into 100 cent. All coins can be
used in all member states. There are €2,
€1, 50c, 20c, 10c, 5c, 2c and 1c coins. All
euro banknotes have a common design for each denomination
on both sides. Notes are issued in the following
values: €500, €200, €100, €50,
€20, €10, €5.
Language: SPANISH -
Spanish the fourth most widely spoken language
in the world according to some sources, while
other sources list it as the 2nd or 3rd most spoken
language. It is spoken as a first language by
about 352 million people.
Country Code: TR - Tel:
+90
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