Photo by Llez, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
🇪🇸 Spain · Lanzarote, Canary Islands
Photo by Llez, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
🇪🇸 Spain · Lanzarote, Canary Islands
♨ Temperature
400°C
⛰ Altitude
420 m
⚗ pH
3.2
💧 TDS
0 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
—
📅 Established
Formed by eruptions 1730–1736 and 1824
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Timanfaya National Park in Lanzarote is one of the most dramatic geothermal landscapes in the world and one of the few places on Earth where volcanic heat can be felt and demonstrated directly at the surface. The park was created by lava flows from the 1730–1736 eruption series — one of the largest basaltic eruptions in recorded European history — and the 1824 eruption that followed. In the central area of Islote de Hilario, the ground temperature at 13 centimetres depth reaches 400°C, and at 6 metres depth, a well reaches 600°C. Branches placed in vent holes catch fire within seconds. Water poured into a natural shaft produces an instant steam geyser. The park's restaurant — El Diablo, designed by Lanzarote's celebrated architect César Manrique — cooks food on a custom grill positioned above a natural geothermal vent, with no other energy source. The black basalt landscape, almost entirely devoid of vegetation, stretches to the horizon like a moonscape, broken only by the silhouettes of volcanic cones and the occasional fig tree or wine grape growing in hand-dug craters. Lanzarote is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
Timanfaya was formed in one of the most significant volcanic events in modern European history: the 1730–1736 eruptions that buried eleven villages, killed livestock across the island, and darkened skies across Europe. Contemporary accounts from the priest Andrés Lorenzo Curbelo describe the catastrophe in detail. The landscape has changed almost nothing since 1736. Lanzarote's designation as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1993 recognised the extraordinary integrity of this volcanic landscape and the cultural response of Lanzaroteños — led by the artist César Manrique — to integrate all development aesthetically with the volcanic character of the island.
Timanfaya has shaped Lanzarote's cultural identity as fundamentally as any human act. César Manrique, the island's most celebrated artist and architect, built his entire aesthetic philosophy around the volcanic landscape — from the El Diablo restaurant at Timanfaya to his own house tunnelled into a volcanic lava bubble. The Canarian tradition of building bodega wine cellars in volcanic cones — creating individual microclimate hollows in the black lava for each vine — is one of the most distinctive wine-growing practices in the world, and it is the same geological fact — accessible geothermal heat at the surface — that makes both agriculture and the Timanfaya experience possible.
Timanfaya is a strictly protected national park with no off-road vehicle access, a controlled number of daily visitors, and no commercial development within park boundaries. All visits must be made by a designated park bus along a set route. The volcanic ecosystem is fragile — seeds and organisms carried by visitors could theoretically colonise the bare lava, altering the characteristic sterility that defines the park's geological character. Visitor education emphasises that Timanfaya is a geological monument, not a theme park.
AddressParque Nacional de Timanfaya, Lanzarote, Spain