The island of Lanzarote is one of the most distinctive and arresting places in the Canary Islands archipelago, a Spanish territory rising from the Atlantic just off the coast of Africa.
Along with the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, the Canaries are the last territories under the Spanish flag outside the Iberian Peninsula.
The archipelago has become a haven for travelers — not only Spaniards, but thousands of Europeans and Americans drawn by its near-perpetual sun and the kind of temperate, spring-like climate that most of the world can only dream of.
While islands like Tenerife and Gran Canaria tend to claim the spotlight, Lanzarote has forged its own identity through a distinctive history steeped in folklore.
Add a collection of landscapes you won’t find anywhere else in the archipelago, and Lanzarote becomes impossible to ignore.
Nowhere is this more apparent than at Timanfaya National Park, which stretches along the island’s western coast.
The park has served as a filming location for movies and documentaries, and its volcanic terrain is so otherworldly it could be from another planet.
What strikes visitors first is a small devil standing at the entrance — a figure with a story worth knowing.
A Devil Born of Terrible Tragedy
Many visitors are surprised that this small devil is the official emblem of Timanfaya.
The legend behind it is tragic — and it explains exactly why this figure was chosen to represent the park.
According to the story, on Sept. 1, 1730, the famous Montañas de Fuego — the Fire Mountains, a chain of volcanoes within the reserve — erupted, hurling lava and huge boulders across the surrounding landscape.
That same day, a young couple was celebrating their wedding at the foot of the volcano. Their village was nearby, and when the eruption began, the guests fled in terror, desperately searching for shelter from the advancing lava.
The bride was not so lucky. One of the first boulders hurled from the volcano landed directly on her, crushing her. In disbelief, her groom tried everything to save her. He found a forca — a farm tool resembling a five-pronged pitchfork — and used it to try to free his bride. By the time he managed to lift the rock, she was already dead.
He gathered her up and ran through the valley, searching for any path to safety. But it was already too late. The entire landscape was consumed by lava and fire, and no road remained to the nearest safe settlement.
From a distance, the neighbors who had escaped watched his silhouette outlined against the moonlight — a lone figure raising his five-pronged pitchfork and cursing his fate.
They called him the “poor devil,” and he was never heard from again.
Yet in the centuries since, many have claimed to have seen the young lover’s silhouette — now a true devil — racing through the valley, condemned to repeat his fate forever.
A Legend Turned Symbol
Timanfaya, with terrain unlike anywhere else on Earth, was designated a national park in 1974 to protect its volcanic landscape and its native flora and fauna.
The celebrated local artist César Manrique designed the visitor center and created the figure of the devil holding the five-pronged pitchfork that greets arrivals at the park.
The devil marks the path into the “volcanic inferno” at the heart of Timanfaya — a landscape that looks lifted straight from science fiction. Visitors today can explore it in several ways, including a bus route that winds along the flanks of the volcanoes.
Beyond the legend of the poor devil of Timanfaya, the park comes with another, more cautionary tale. The volcanic rocks scattered across the park are prized for their unusual appearance, and over the years, more than a few visitors have slipped some into their bags as souvenirs.
A few years ago, however, a German tourist made headlines by returning to Lanzarote solely to give back the rocks he had taken from Timanfaya. He claimed that ever since taking them, he had suffered one misfortune after another. A warning, perhaps, for anyone tempted to do the same.
Timanfaya National Park is today the most visited attraction on Lanzarote, an island with several other remarkable sites tied to the legacy of César Manrique. The artist’s former home — where he created much of his work — is itself a stunning piece of avant-garde architecture.
The Jameos del Agua Caves, in the north of the island, are equally unmissable: a subterranean world of lush pools and spectacular rock formations, well worth the trip for anyone who makes it to Lanzarote.
