It’s the sort of invitation you can’t really turn down. Dinner at the Devils Diner, 8pm. No need to dress warm.
But despite the fact that you can watch your deviled chicken being cooked on a grill powered by an intense heat emerging from the bowels of the earth — some two and half miles away — it’s soon readily apparent that you are far closer to heaven than hell.
El Diablo Restaurant
The El Diablo Restaurant was created by the islands favourite son, artist and architect Cesar Manrique. It crowns a semi-dormant volcano set right in the very heart of Lanzarote’s world famous Timanfaya volcano park — home of the Fire Mountains or Montañas del Fuego.
The restaurant incorporates many of Manriques quirky trademark touches, the light fittings are crafted from old pans for example and the main circular dining room offers the most incredible panoramic views of the eerie, out of this world landscape created a couple of centuries ago by a devastating series of volcanic eruptions.
Timanfaya Mountains of Fire
Land that is now buried beneath twisted swirls of black solidified lava and majestic multi-coloured volcanic cones was once home to twelve villages and the most fertile farming on the island. Grain was cultivated here back in the 17th and 18th centuries, earning Lanzarote the title of the breadbasket of the Canaries.
A Popular Tourist Attraction
Now, Timanfaya is Lanzarote’s most popular tourist attraction, its awesome raw beauty drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
In many ways the Fire Mountains have come to define Lanzarote and it´s people — demonstrating an ingenious resilience that characterises so many aspects of island life and which has enabled them to literally snatch success from the ashes of disaster.
Six Years of Volcanic Activity
The main eruption that decimated this region was one of the longest periods of volcanic activity ever recorded, lasting some six years from 1730. Records of the event read like a terrifying science fiction film. The ground moved like the sea, the crust breaking into waves, whilst massive volcanic cones hundreds of metres high rose up suddenly from the depths of the earth.
The resulting devastation, which at the time fuelled poverty and migration, has been pretty much preserved intact. In geological terms, where changes to the earth can be traced over millions of years, the eruptions happened yesterday. Lanzarote’s low rainfall has also created very little erosion, so visitors are able to enjoy this truly unique landscape in its pristine form.
Stunning Lunar Landscapes
Timanfaya is often likened to the moon, implying a bleak, lifeless monochrome landscape. Indeed, NASA has used pictures of the park to brief astronauts prior to lunar missions. But that description fails to do justice to the incredible colours of the volcanoes themselves — reds, purples and greens — which have been created by the ores and pigments ejected by the eruptions then settling on the surfaces of these exhausted peaks.
Visitors get to enjoy these sights close-up, as expertly driven tour buses wind their way through a tight 45 minute route that was blasted through the volcanic landscape back in the late 1960’s.
The ingenious project to exploit this incredible natural beauty and put Lanzarote on the tourist map was undertaken under the aegis of Cesar Manrique and the island government. Local legend has it that Manrique attuned himself with nature, to divine the perfect route, by walking through the area naked!
A True Natural Wonder
Whether true or not, what isn’t in doubt is the fact that Timanfaya is a true natural wonder, guaranteeing every visitor one hell of a time.
Useful Information
To get to Timanfaya you’ll need to book one of the organised tours from one of the holiday companies, or hire a car if you prefer to be independant.
