- Ancient civilizations

Guanches are an amazing people who have lived in the Canary Islands for a very long time. The conquistadors who arrived here were amazed to see white, red-haired people in the "African" region. The islanders' communication methods surprised no less. The secret of the appearance of Guanchi on the islands has not been revealed to this day. The Guanchi people are considered extinct, but people with indigenous features are still found in the Canary Islands.

The Canary Islands are located off the coast of Africa. The archipelago consists of 7 large islands, the largest of which are Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

Written records of the Guanches date back to around the 1400s, during the Spanish conquest of the islands. According to the written evidence of those cruel events, it became known that the conquerors were literally "stunned" when they met such an unusual people for those places. They were tall, under two meters, white-skinned, blue-eyed people with brown and red hair like fire. No less, they were surprised by their customs and very specific methods of communication between them.

Who are the Guanches, where did they come from, why and how did they disappear?

It is believed that the Guanchi people appeared on the islands about three thousand years ago.

In past centuries, there were theories about their connection with the ancient myth of Atlantis, Egyptians, Phoenicians, etc. Also, the Guanches had similar physical features with the Cro-Magnons who inhabited Europe in those ancient times.

Without a plow, the Guanches successfully cultivated cereals, wheat, barley, and cultivated legumes. Dough was made from barley processed into flour, which to this day is the national food of the peoples inhabiting the Canary Islands.

Of course, the main occupation of the islanders was cattle breeding. They raised goats, sheep, pigs (the appearance of these animals on the islands remains a mystery). The Guanches also gathered fruits and caught coastal animals.

They dressed in capes made of sewn, brightly colored goat skins, which was not always necessary, since the climate on the islands is rather mild and quite constant.

In addition to cattle, the Guanches were bred and eaten by large dogs. These dogs were distinguished by their large size and vicious character, their eyes were very bulging, unfortunately they are now considered extinct, but now their descendant (perro de presa canario) Canary Dog lives and thrives on the islands, often frightening good-natured tourists with their appearance.

Canary dog

This breed appeared as a result of mixing with the local breed of the Bardino Mahero and the English Mastiff, introduced there in the 18th century.

This people did not know iron and other metals, but they successfully managed with tools made of wood and volcanic stone. Their tools and weapons were in no way inferior to metal ones, which is very clearly confirmed by the serious rebuff they gave in the war against the conquerors - the struggle was waged for decades.

The islanders were dwelling in deep caves dug under the rocks, and in some areas carved right into the rocks, where there were soft fallows. Characteristically, such dwellings are used on the islands today. The descendants of the very conquistadors who conquered the islands in their time, in some places live in small "villages", in dwellings carved right into the rocks for 15-20 families.

As you know, these contemporaries are not going to change their place of residence, although local authorities have repeatedly tried to overpower them into modern housing. It turned out that such a dwelling, unlike ordinary buildings, is very environmentally friendly and has its own constant microclimate, as they say in any weather.

about Tenerife

gallery of monuments to the leaders

Reconstruction of Guanchi's life

During the conquest of the Canary Islands by the Spaniards, the aggressors were very impressed not only by the appearance of the Guanchi People, it resembled a European one (and this is, after all, next to the coast of Africa), but most of all they were surprised by the unusual manner of Guanchi's communication with each other. The islanders easily communicated with each other with their lips, that is, they could not use any vocal sounds at all. Being close, they simply moved their lips, as if they had no language, while it was natural for them and they understood each other very well.

The islanders could also communicate while being at a great distance from each other (several kilometers). They did this with the help of a whistle tongue. Scientists call this language "the language of Silvo Homer", this name stuck to him because only the inhabitants of the island of Homer retained the skills of mastering this language. Often, modern Canarians use it, surprising the tourists who come here.

The social structure of Guanchi's life was rather complex, each tribe had its own head, he was called "mensay", the entire population was divided into two classes, plebeians and people of a noble, high level. There was also a separate caste, these are confessors. An indicator of their rather high culture is their practice of mummifying their dead. She was not as perfect as the ancient Egyptians, but she was quite skillful.

Reconstruction of Guanchi's life

Internal organs were removed from the body of the deceased, then the body was washed for a long time with salt, sea water, rubbed with a special compound, this is a mixture of sheep fat, pumice, and resin of coniferous trees.

The mummy returned to the island of Tenerife

Stored in the Madrid National Museum of Anthropology since the 18th century

The best preserved mummy of Guanchi

Then the mummy was dried in the sun, stuffed with a variety of aromatic herbs, wrapped in animal skins and tied with strong leather belts. After that, she was placed in special family tombs, which were located in deep, secret caves, far in the mountains.

A surprising similarity was discovered by the European scientist von Humboldt, while in the Canary Islands in 1806. Upon deep examination of the islands, he found a large number of mummies, and all of them had a "filling" containing ragweed grass. The same plants were found in mummies by another scientist Paul Marcoy who traveled to South America, but these were already the mummies of the ancient Incas near Lake Titicaca.

Stone covered

unknown letter signs

According to research data, at the time of the discovery of the Guanchi people by the Spaniards, by all indications they were at the stage of development of the Stone Age, but at the same time scientists were able to find traces of writing. These were rock paintings in the form of signs similar to symbols or letters, some were in the form of geometric shapes. Until now, it has not been possible to decipher these inscriptions. They partially resemble ancient Libyan and Numidian scripts, but still this is a completely separate type of writing. Scientists say they are over 2000 years old.

Another mystery is kept in the Canary Islands - the pyramids. Who and when built them, no one knows for sure, but they still adorn the island of Tenerife with their grandeur. The rectangular pyramids are very similar to the pyramids of the ancient Maya. Under one of these pyramids, the residence of the ancient rulers of the island was arranged.

Pyramids of Guimar about. Tenerife

The Guanches had no fleet at all. Archaeologists who have carried out excavations on the islands have not found any artifact confirming the presence of at least some kind of primitive floating craft. At the same time, it is argued that the islanders could easily swim between the islands in the water, and they did it regularly.

One day, Spanish ships arrived in the Gando Bay on one of the islands. The purpose of their arrival was to expand the Spanish possessions and subdue the local population.

about Tenerife

gallery of monuments to the leaders

The Guanches gave a serious rebuff to the conquerors. Despite their primitive weapons compared to the aggressor, the war continued for many decades. The proud, island people did not want to submit to a stronger enemy. But still, by the end of the 15th century, the conquest was completed, the last one to conquer the island of Tenerife. As the legends tell - "the last inhabitants did not want to surrender at the mercy of the enemies and everyone in the place threw themselves off the steep cliffs."

But today the local people of the islands say that they still have the blood of Guanchi. And if you meet a tall, red-haired and blue-eyed local resident on the island, then you won't be mistaken, this is definitely a descendant of their distant ancestors.

Not so long ago, anthropological studies carried out on the islands confirm that the ancient people of Guanchi were not completely exterminated by the Spanish conquerors. In part, they mixed with the European conquerors, and some of them retained the features and characteristics of their distant ancestors completely.

More than 500 years have passed since that time, and the modern world lives and flourishes on these beautiful islands. Now it is just a paradise for tourists, with excellent beaches, wonderful weather and, of course, with ancient history, which you can touch here face to face. And now the islands are under the jurisdiction of Spain and are one of the autonomous communities of this country. Autonomy has two capitals, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In the city of Santiago del Teide, there is a monument to the leader of the Guanchi tribe.

The origin of many civilizations is shrouded in secrets, mythical rumors and has dozens of variants. Guanches are no exception. Of course, they cannot be called a civilization - there were about twenty thousand people in all Guanches, and the first tribes appeared about three thousand years ago. They lived on several islands in the Atlantic Ocean during the Stone Age and completely disappeared after the settling of the islands by Europeans in the 15th century.

But more on that later. Guanchinet got its name from its habitat - the people of Tenerife. On this, historians agree. But there is no consensus about where the Guanche tribes still existed. Some believe that on all seven islands of the Canary archipelago, others - that only Tenerife and Gran Canaria - the two largest islands. Where did they come from there? The issue is also controversial, shrouded in legends and secrets. There is a legend that the Canary Islands are the volcanoes and mountains of Atlantis, which has sunk under water. The islands are indeed volcanic in origin, covered with mountains, and Tenerife has a large volcano. Only the Atlantean shepherds survived: they were in the mountains when Atlantis died, lost everything and remained in the mountains to start life anew. The descriptions of the Guanches are also suitable for this version - tall people two meters tall, beautiful, strong, white-skinned, blue-eyed and red-haired. Literally, fairy giants or inhabitants "The abode of the blessed and the garden of the Hesperides" (c) Greek myths. It is hard to believe that the "black" continent lies just a few hundred kilometers away.
There is another version of their origin. A certain monarch of a certain state, back in the days of Carthage, ordered to cut off the tongues of a group of his subjects and send them to uninhabited islands. The language of the Guanches speaks in support of this theory: the tribes communicated without words, moving their lips, and whistling was used to transmit information over long distances. Guanches heard the "bird's tongue" at a distance of up to fifteen meters! This version also allows one to explain some special knowledge of the Canary peoples, for example, the ability to mummify corpses.

The ancient Egyptians and Greeks considered the territory of the Canary Islands to be the end of the world, the place where all life ends and a normal person has nothing to do there. Perhaps it was this fact that helped the tribes to live peacefully in such a warm, fruitful and comfortable habitat. Perhaps it was the climate and good living conditions that slowed down the evolution of the Guanches and left them at the level of the Neolithic tribes.
Oddly enough, but until the arrival of Europeans on the islands, the indigenous population lived in caves, wore skins and clothing made of natural materials, did not know how to process metals and did not have any means of transportation on water (at least there is no archaeological or historical evidence, refuting this fact)!

But the ancient Canary people had a developed class and social system. At the head of the clan was the leader (in Tenerife he was called the menseus, and in Gran Canaria, the guanartem), who made all important decisions together with the council of elders, the tagoror.
The inhabitants of the island, like most of the peoples of the world, were divided into two main classes: the privileged aristocrats and the plebeians. It was easy to distinguish them: plebeians did not have the right to wear long hair. It was a man or a woman - the haircut was always short, leaving the neck open. Members of the nobility, both male and female, wore shoulder-length hair.

Council of Elders

The Guanches lived in caves or huts built of stone. Despite the lack of official writing, houses and places of public gatherings were decorated with drawings and inscriptions that looked like letters or magical symbols. The richer the family, the larger the cave they had. In the same place where they slept, simple utensils were kept: earthenware, fishing tackle, weapons.

Separate premises were used for hospitals, crypts, work places of priests, meetings of the council of elders, "school of brides", prisons ... Now a little more about each.

The hospital, of course, was not the treatment center we were used to. Not many procedures were carried out in them: craniotomy with stone instruments, bloodletting and ... actually, mummification. Of course, not every simple Guanche ended his life in the form of a mummy, such an honor fell only to the representatives of the nobility: the leaders and members of their families, members of the council of elders. The mummification procedure was quite simple and only affected the body, not the head: the deceased was opened (again with stone tools), the internal organs were removed, the body was washed from the inside with ocean water and smeared with a special ointment (sheep fat + pine resin + crushed pumice). Then for two weeks the body was dried in the sun, it became light, it was stuffed with fragrant herbs, washed with the juice of a dragon tree, sewn up, wrapped in skins and sent to a special storage.

Those who did not become a mummy could receive the right to be buried in a special cemetery. The cemetery was a kind of labyrinth in which graves were dug, planked and buried. Not everyone could afford a family cemetery. Those who were not so lucky had to end their lives in the most ordinary crypt in the form of the most ordinary skeleton.

Family cemetery:

School for brides is also quite a fun place. Before marriage, each girl had to live a certain amount of time in a special cave, monet, with other girls and with priestesses. There they learned simple crafts, made sacrifices to the gods, and most importantly .. ate. If there is a lot, after all, a real woman must bear and give birth to a healthy and strong child, and, according to the Guanches, a woman weighing up to one hundred kilograms was not capable of such a responsible act.

The Guanches had the beginnings of a legal system. The offender was convicted, isolated from society in a special prison and proved his guilt. If the guilt is proven, the sentence was carried out, a huge stone block fell on the convicted person's head. If a person was found innocent, he was released. The priest always watched the executions, probably to warn the gods about the "novice" approaching them. True, the law cannot be called fair. So one of the rules read: for murder, especially if it was committed treacherously, vilely, not the criminal himself was sentenced to death, but one of his close relatives - his wife, father or son. It was much harder for a criminal to live knowing that because of you a beloved innocent person died, than to get hit on the head himself.

I already wrote that the Guanches did not know how to process metals, they did not have iron knives or spears with metal tips. All tools, fishing gear and weapons proper were made of stone, animal bones and wood.

However, they often did not have to take up spears and clubs: this people was distinguished by a rare peacefulness. Instead of going to war against the offender, the Guanches ... built a stone wall. On one of the islands, Fuerteventura, a similar wall divides the entire island in half, delimiting the influence of the tribes.

The warm climate and ocean surrounding the islands did not leave the inhabitants without food. First, they were excellent herders and knew how to raise sheep, goats, pigs, chickens and dogs.

Dogs, however, not for meat, but for protection. A rare breed of bardino, it is believed, gave the name to the islands ( canis dog in Latin). Agriculture did not lag behind: local residents knew how to grow grain (barley and wheat) and legumes, made dough, collected mushrooms and fruits from trees. The men went fishing: the ocean regularly provided fish, crabs and edible seaweed.

To keep fit and to have fun, many Aboriginal villages had small arenas for training and real fights. For a man, possession of the pole was a mandatory skill. The pole was used both for herding purposes - they were herded into a herd of goats and sheep, for the convenience of moving through the mountainous terrain and, at the same time, as a powerful weapon.

On the island of Tenerife, there are several stepped pyramids built of stone. Many researchers believe that these monumental structures were erected in honor of the sun god, whose cult reigned among the local population. In the caves under the temples, dwellings were found, possibly priests or even tribal leaders lived there.

Quiet life ended in the 14th century, when Spanish ships first entered the bay of one of the islands. The Guanches sincerely took them for unknown birds, and the sails for huge wings and tried to fight off the monsters with stones. The surprised sailors left. But more and more often European ships returned and attacked the Guanches. Stone axes could not withstand the weapons of the invaders, the population began to rapidly decrease, an epidemic of plague, brought from the mainland, swept across the islands ... As a result, in 1496, the last Guanche warriors threw themselves off the cliff into the ocean, being surrounded, and one and a half thousand women and children became prisoners ... If they could survive, they mingled with the conquerors, became slaves and ceased to exist as a tribe.

There are more questions than answers in the history of the Guanches, but interest in the history of this ancient people is disappearing. The reconstructed Aboriginal village (Mundo Aborigen) in Gran Canaria, where the above photographs were taken, is practically not visited by tourists, you can only get there on your own, and many mannequins need repair for a long time. Too bad the place is absolutely amazing.

PS: All photographs presented in the report were taken independently. The exception is photographs of the pyramids on the island of Tenerife.

"The Mystery of Plato's Atlantis", after Termier's report, captivated many. Not only geologists, but also other specialists entered into the dispute about Atlantis: zoologists, botanists, historians, anthropologists and ethnographers.

Some geologists argued, opposing Termier, that the sinking of the continent in the Atlantic Ocean occurred much earlier than the time that Plato talks about, because the coastal terraces of the ocean are geologically more ancient in origin. Others believed that lava of a glassy structure lifted from the ocean floor could have formed underwater.

However, everyone recognized the existence of a vast continent in the middle of the ocean during the geological life of the Earth, only denied that this continent could be Plato's Atlantis. They proved this by the fact that large islands and areas of land in the ocean, according to geology, should have disappeared, sinking to the bottom already in the Tertiary period, when there was no man on Earth to witness this event.

Others admitted that the islands scattered across the Atlantic Ocean are the remnants of Atlantis that once perished. First, there is a certain correctness in the arrangement of the islands. The Azores lie in three parallel rows, as if they were the remaining mountain peaks of three sunken mountain ranges. Of the Canary Islands, two large islands lie parallel to the African coast, while the rest are parallel to the Azores. Secondly, all the islands have active volcanoes, which indicates the seismicity of this part of the ocean. On the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands), the main volcano rises to a height of 3 kilometers above sea level, and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occurred here as early as 1909.

All this makes it possible to assume that the islands of the Atlantic Ocean are the remnants of ancient land, most of which sank to the bottom of the ocean through cracks and faults. At the same time, grandiose volcanic eruptions should have occurred.

Indeed, the Canary Islands give travelers the impression of being the wreckage of some fantastic country. The bizarrely formidable view of the rocks, which stand like gloomy giants over the sea and over the steep cliffs of the coast, is striking. Some coastal cliffs are so high, steep and steep that it seems as if a fault occurred right here, along which part of the mainland or island plunged into the water.

The waves beat with a dull roar in deep bays and grottoes, and a booming echo brings the sound of the surf, like a distant thunder, into the depths of the island, where the tops of volcanoes rise. Fantastic mountain roads run among trachyte rocks and basalt pillars, forming huge bizarre colonnades. Monstrous boulders of stone, as if soaring into the sky, hang motionless over deep valleys covered with bright and dense vegetation. And on the tops of the mountains, over the blooming terraces, dark openings of caves gape and sometimes craters of volcanoes smoke.

The Azores also make the same impression. When approaching them, what is most surprising is the sheer number of hawks flying over the rocks. Therefore, when in the 15th century the islands were first discovered by the Portuguese, they were called Azores, which in Portuguese means "hawkish" ("azores" - "hawk").

Page from the book of nature

Hawks feed on these islands mainly on rabbits, mice and weasels. These small mammals were found on the islands before the arrival of Europeans. In addition, it turned out that the Azores weasel belongs to a special subspecies of weasels, which is unknown in Europe. And rabbits were brought to Europe from America, and Europeans could not bring them to the islands until the discovery of America by Columbus. Obviously, wild rabbits on the Atlantic Islands, as well as mice and weasels, the abundance of which on the islands was noticed in the 15th century, remained here as on the wreckage of the lost mainland. Such "residual" animals are also some species of snails, which are found, in addition to the islands, in the Mediterranean Sea region and in America. Land snails are always closely associated with the soil and spread very slowly. In no case could they be carried by the sea current to the islands. One family of snails is currently only found in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Islands and Central America. In America they are large, but on the islands and on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea they are small. In the ancient sediments of southern Europe, they were found as large as modern snails in America.

The world of land snails in general on these islands is extremely rich, and this suggests that the islands once belonged to a large land.

The same is seen in the vegetation of the Atlantic Islands. Here most of all species are in common with the Mediterranean region and with northwestern Africa. And some species are common with the Antilles, Middle and South America. There are also native species characteristic of the Atlantic Islands, but they also have a close relationship with the views of the Mediterranean coast and Central America.

One fern species found in a fossil state in Europe, where it has long been extinct, is currently growing in the Canary and Azores. Another fern species is found in the Atlantic Islands, West Africa, America, Ireland and the Pyrenees. Several species of the beautiful evergreen tree, called the strawberry tree, grow on the islands and in the Mediterranean region. Other species are found in Central and South America.

There are many examples of the commonality of animal and plant forms for the Atlantic Islands, Southern Europe and North America. On this basis, biologists began to prove that the Atlantic Islands are parts of a vast continent, connected by a chain of other islands or isthmuses with Europe, North Africa and America. The destruction of this continent took place gradually and began in the west. The mainland plunged into the ocean, of which the highest parts of the sunken land remained in the form of islands. Apparently, the latest disaster separated the Canary Islands from Africa. This could have happened in the post-glacial era - in other words, when the lost mainland could already be inhabited by people. Perhaps the legend about this terrible event was conveyed by Plato in his story.

Guanches - descendants of the Atlanteans?

If Atlantis existed so recently, then not only the descendants of the animals and plants inhabiting it, but also the descendants of people could survive on the islands that survived from it. Indeed, when the Europeans discovered the Atlantic Islands in the XIV century, a special people lived on the Canary Islands - the Guanches - "a man from the island of Tenerife" ("guan" - "man", "chinet" - "Tenerife").

The largest islands of the Canary archipelago are Tenerife and Homer. When the Europeans landed for the first time on the island of Tenerife, the Guanches welcomed them warmly and cordially, but when the Spaniards began to oppress them, they rose up to defend their independence. The Spaniards, of course, were much stronger than the Guanches, they partly exterminated the population of the islands, partly they enslaved it. The islands still belong to the Spaniards, and the entire population speaks Spanish.

Skulls and skeletons of ancient Guanches have been found on the islands of Tenerife and Gomera.

According to the French anthropologists Quatrefage, Amy and Verno, most of the skulls and skeletons of the Guanches bore a striking resemblance to the late Paleolithic, so-called Cro-Magnon European race, that is, with the inhabitants of the Stone Age in Europe. This opinion is now accepted by science. And the smaller part belonged to people of the Semitic type from Syria and Palestine.

Modern Guanches, although heavily Hispanic, still retain the features of their ancestors. They are distinguished by their olive skin color, ranging from dark to yellow-red Indians, and long, often blond hair and light eyes.

We know about the culture of the Guanches from the chronicles of the XIV and especially the XV centuries from the first Europeans who visited the Canary Islands.

The Guanches greeted the Spaniards hospitably. At that time, on the islands of Tenerife and Gomera, there were still walls of some fortifications built of large boulders. But nobody knew the purpose of these walls. The Guanches, according to the chronicles, were unaware of the existence of other countries and peoples. They did not have boats and did not even move from one island to another. For what, by whom and when were these defensive fortifications built? And how to understand that for centuries not a single inhabitant of these islands has thought about how to swim to the neighboring island even in a simple canoe hollowed out of a tree trunk?

Religious ceremonies associated with the sea were central to their worship. The Guanches, apparently, considered the sea a sacred and inviolable creature, they were afraid of it and therefore did not even know how to swim.

Back in the 17th century, when the Europeans asked them where their ancestors came from, the Guanches replied: “Our fathers told us that God brought us to this island, that here he forgot us, but one day he will remember us and return to us together with the sun. "

Guanches dressed in goat skins, sewn with thin veins, wore leather shoes on their feet; the neck was adorned with necklaces of long clay beads, shells and boar tusks, which were found in abundance on the islands. The weapons of the Guanches were spears, darts tipped with stone or obsidian (volcanic glass), polished stone slings and axes.

On their heads, the Guanches wore pointed hats, and the inhabitants of two islands (Lanzarote and Fuerteventura) adorned their heads with feathers, like the ancient Libyans and Iberians.

According to the observations of the Spaniards, this was an honest, freedom-loving and brave people, distinguished by moderation in life and respect for women. The Italian poet Boccaccio, who visited the Canary Islands in 1341, says that the Guanches "seemed to him a happy, enlightened and peaceful people," and that "they had a chapel with a statue depicting a naked man with a ball in his hand."

The Guanches lived in natural or rock-cut caves, but sometimes they built themselves round or oval houses from rough stones. The entrance was decorated with two large stone slabs, on which, like a roof, lay a third slab. Their homes, like those of the inhabitants of North Africa, were half buried in the ground - a trait that the German scientist Frobenius considers characteristic of Atlantean culture.

The Guanches knew how to fish, raised sheep and goats, and tamed wild pigs. They were engaged in agriculture, using artificial irrigation. The land was plowed, furrowing with a stick with a sharp bone tip, and barley was sown. Women ground the dried grains with hand mills and baked flat cakes from coarse flour, as all modern Berber tribes in Africa do.

The Guanches worshiped the Sun. Like the Egyptians and Peruvians in America, they had the religious custom of embalming corpses and preserving the mummies of noble dead and kings. When the Spaniards took possession of the Canary Islands, on each of them there was an estate, a kind of caste of embalmers. They knew how to wrap bodies in bandages and prepare mummies using the same techniques used by the ancient Egyptians and Peruvians. Mummies were buried in graves, over which, however, not everywhere and not always, stones were formed in the form of a small pyramid.

The priests wore high conical headdresses, similar to the headdresses of the Canaanite and Phoenician nobles. The priestesses in the Canary Islands were called "garimaguadas", which is reminiscent of the priestesses in ancient Mesopotamia: "gariman-gagyum", meaning "women of the temple." Interestingly, in the ancient city of Ur (Mesopotamia), the priestesses of a large temple obeyed the same rules and performed the same duties as the priestesses of the Canary Islands.

The Guanches loved music, sang a lot and did athletic exercises. In the Spanish chronicles it is written that "nowhere in the world can you meet people more beautiful and more fun than in the Canary Islands, both men and women." The Spaniards liked the Guanche dances so much that they began to imitate them.

When scientists subsequently became interested in the Guanches, they found among their household items the remains of earthenware with a geometric pattern similar to the ornament of Kabyle ceramics (Kabila are part of the indigenous Berber population of Algeria). On some of the vessels, there were handles in the shape of a pig's head, reminiscent of the handles of vessels found in Malta.

The small stone idols of the Guanches are similar to those of the Stone Age in the Mediterranean area. But the most interesting are the so-called "Pitander" - stone or clay seals with a handle for imposing geometric patterns on the body. On the flat side of the seal there was an ornament covered with paint. Similar seals have been found in Mexico and Yucatan (America), as well as in prehistoric Ireland and in various prehistoric sites in the Mediterranean, in Liguria, Apulia, Transylvania and Thrace.

In addition, the Guanches had their own calendar, in which the year was divided into twelve months, as in the Berber, Egyptian, Greek and Mayan calendars in America. The similarity in the existence of the caste of embalmers and in the methods of preparing mummies among the Guanches, Egyptians and the inhabitants of ancient Peru led scientists to think about the commonality of their ancient culture. Maybe the Guanches were really the accidental surviving descendants of the numerous people that inhabited Atlantis?

According to some atlantologists, this is confirmed by the similarity of the Guanche language with the language of the Berbers in Africa and the ancient Celts in Europe. Berber words are often found in the Guanche language. In addition, the "whistle tongue" is still preserved on Homer's island. Often, even now, the inhabitants of the island express their thoughts not in words, but in a whistle. With the help of their tongue, lips, teeth and palate, they achieve such a variety of sounds that they can freely talk to each other. The whistle of the Guanches resembles the "bird" tongue of the Bushmen in South Africa and the whistle of the Akka pygmies in northern Congo. And exactly the same whistle tongue was discovered thirty years ago among the Indians from the state of Oaxaca in Mexico.

The Guanches also had a written language. Their hieroglyphs have not been deciphered, but they bear some resemblance to the written signs on dolmens in Portugal and the oldest hieroglyphs from the island of Crete.

That the Guanches were the offspring of a more enlightened and more numerous people is proved by the fact that they had writing, astronomical signs, reverence for the dead, embalming of bodies, public buildings, a love of singing, music and athletic exercises, solemnly performed during popular festivals.

Written signs on the rocks.

I decided to summarize information on the anthropology and genetics of the Guanches.

They are often fond of being portrayed as the lost knee of Israel's wild white Europeans. And lovers of conspiracy - Atlanteans, Aryans, maybe even Rousseau-Cro-Magnons, as they imagine. In the eyes of such storytellers, the Guanches are all blond, tall and white-skinned. They emphasize their striking difference not only from the North African peoples, but also from the Spaniards, and indeed from the South Europeans in general. One gets the impression that these same Guanches are clearly aliens from much more northern regions. Indeed, the vandals were playing pranks, the Cossack women were taking a walk. Well, or the Paleorians got scared in the late Mesozoic.

But in fact, everything is much more prosaic.

In fact, isolation and selection work wonders. At one time, Academician Vavilov successfully proved such a phenomenon as the pushing back of recessive characters to the outskirts of the area. In practice, this means that if the population is either in hard-to-reach places, or somewhere above the outskirts of the concentration of their own kind, marriages become with less and less genetically diverse individuals. This is where the roots of this recessive lie. By the way, Vavilov observed this on the example of the Afghans (where there are also a lot of light supposedly descendants of the alleged Aryans or Alexander's soldiers). You can still remember the Chechens and many others, the principle is clear. Much more interesting is the real anthropology and the origin of the Guanches.

Modern studies allow us to conclude that two types were distinguished among the Canarians - one narrow-faced Mediterranean, and the other wider, with lower orbits, pronounced supraorbital relief, similar to the type of the Mesolithic population of North Africa. The results of blood studies and craniological observations of recent decades have cast doubt on the "Cro-Magnon theory" of the settlement of the islands directly from the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, a study of blood groups by Spanish scientists showed that the phenotypes of the ABO group in the Canary Islands series are similar to those in the population of North Africa. In 81 mummified Guanches and 191 residents of Gran Canaria, ABO blood groups were noted. This is close to the data on the Moroccan Atlas. It can be added that the O group is a distinctive feature of the Canary Islands. However, it is not so common among the modern population. Observations have shown that the inhabitants of the Atlas Mountains also have a group O. However, it is not as widespread there as among the population of the Canaries, but the mountains are not such a powerful isolate as the islands! A high percentage of group O among Basques and residents of Western Ireland.
A kind of confirmation of the hypothesis about the settlement of the islands by immigrants from North Africa is the data on the color of the skin and hair of the Canary population. Even Espinosa wrote: “The skin color of the inhabitants of the south of Tenerife is dark from mixing blood or from the climate, they go almost naked. But in the north, their color is light and delicate, their hair is long ... ”Later, R. Verno noted in Morocco a lot of people with light brown hair and light eyes. He pointed out that black straight hair is predominant in Eastern Berbers, curly and kinky where there is clear mixing with Negroids, and in Western Berber populations, blonde hair is even more common than light skin, especially in childhood. For many North African tribes, the hair color changed and turned from light to dark over entire historical periods due to mixing with alien tribes.

"In conditions of extreme isolation the population has survived, bringing to the present day the reflections of the ethnic processes of a distant era, a fragment of some ancient ethnic world already hidden by subsequent events. The Upper Paleolithic origin of this population seemed very likely, but at the same time, the incompleteness of the evidence and the speculative nature of the hypothesis itself left many ambiguities and pushed research thought in a variety of other directions. As a result, data on native populations in the Canary Islands have been used in a wide variety of ways, including to prove unlikely concepts. Let me mention the hypothesis defended even now, according to which the inhabitants of the Canary Islands are descendants of the population of the mythical Atlantis (Zhirov, 1964).
A new word in understanding this problem was made possible by data collected relatively recently and covering various aspects of the anthropological characteristics of the ethnic group in question. Preliminary results of a physical examination have been published (Schwidetzky, 1956) and huge newly acquired craniological collections have been described (Schwidetzky, 1963). The latter are evenly distributed over all the islands of the Canary archipelago and very fully characterize the population of each island. They weaken the received early impression of the Cro-Magnon features of the modern type of Canarians and show that kanarians, for all their massiveness, differ from the most ancient forms of the Caucasian race by a much greater gracefulness... On the other hand, the distribution of the phenotypes of the ABO system in the total series from the Canary Islands when determining the blood groups on the bones is similar to the similar distribution in the populations of North Africa. All this deprives the problem of the aura of mystery and at the same time puts it on a solid track of objective observation. Inclusion of the population of the Canary Islands, like the Berber populations of North Africa, in the composition of the Western Mediterranean group of populations is resolved positively".

(c) V. Alekseev. "Anthropogeography"

It is worth remembering that not only the ancient Egyptians portrayed the ancient Libyans as brown-haired, but also almost modern Berbers came to the attention of anthropologists. Thus, the American anthropologist K. Kuhn described the Berber groups of the Reef as follows:

Representatives of this group have the lightest pigmentation and the most European appearance.

Skin color: 65% - pinkish-white shades (1-3 and 6-9 according to Lushan). In some tribes, pink shades can be found in 86%.
... Freckles - 23%.
... Hair pigmentation: 10% - light brown and blonde hair (in some tribes - up to 25%); 4% - red hair. Among the light shades, golden and reddish predominate, ashy hair is a rarity.
... Beard color: light and light brown beards - 45% (in some tribes - up to 57%); red beards - 17% (in some tribes - up to 26%).
... Eye pigmentation: 43% - dark eyes; 20% - dark mixed shades; 35% - light mixed shades; 2% - light eyes. In the Beni Amart tribe (they have the lightest pigmentation), 18% have dark eyes; 73% have mixed pigmentation, and 9% have light eyes (the Rif Highlanders have slightly lighter pigmentation than the inhabitants of Southern Europe and much lighter pigmentation than the inhabitants of the lowland regions of the Maghreb).
... Hair shape: 50% - curly wavy hair. Curly African hair was not found among Reef Berbers (but among Schluch Berbers, curly hair was found in 12%).

The Canary Islands are located off the coast of Africa.

Archaeologists have not yet found a single fact that would speak of the first Guanches' acquaintance with navigation. The tribe, living on the islands, did not even have a primitive fleet. But at the same time, the Guanches were excellent swimmers and swam from one archipelago to another.

The archipelago consists of 7 large islands, the largest of which are Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

The very name of the tribe "Guanches" means - "children of the volcano." It is in ancient legends that we can find a mention of the ancestors of this tribe emerging from the depths of Terenifa - this is the highest volcano in the Canary Islands.

The birth of an ancient civilization on the islands is evidenced by the Chacon Pyramids, discovered on the island of Tenerife in the Guimar Valley.

The Canary Islands are quite young by geological standards - they are about 20 million years old.

Before the discovery by Europeans, the Guanches lived in caves, which they themselves hollowed out in the rocks. The tribe wore modest capes made of animal skins or completely naked. The Guanche tribe was very caring about the younger generation. But for a modern person, this is a little strange. They sent all the girls to a special institution called "monet". And before marriage, they underwent training there. The preparation consisted in the fact that all the girls were fattened to 100 kilograms. This was considered the standard of beauty among local residents.

Fragment of the panel "Peaceful life of the Guanches in the Orotava Valley".

Most of all, the language of the Guanches, with the help of which they communicated with each other, is striking. Two inhabitants of this tribe, standing next to each other, without uttering a single word, moved their lips. At the same time, they understood each other. At a distance, they communicated using a whistle, the sound of which was of different intonations and different durations.

The Norman Jean de Bettencourt wrote in his diaries: “These islands are inhabited by tall people who speak a wonderful language. They speak with their lips as if they have no tongue. This tribe has a legend that the leader of their ancestors ordered to cut off all their languages \u200b\u200bso that they would no longer communicate in the language of the gods. "

The most interesting thing is that the inhabitants of this tribe with the help of a whistle could communicate at a distance exceeding 15 kilometers.

Guanches smashed their heads with a stone as punishment for a crime.

The Guanche tribe itself has long disappeared from the face of the earth, leaving only the current inhabitants of the Canary Islands, who have long been mixed with different tribes and different peoples of the world.

It is also surprising that in addition to their unusual language, they also bred giant Bardino dogs. This breed had large bulging eyes and an evil disposition. These dogs protected them from the encroachments of ill-wishers. And unlike the Guanche tribe itself, the Bardino breed is still bred on these islands.

The Guanche tribe did not know what iron was. All of their tools were made of wood and stone. The tribe was peaceful and never directly showed their aggression. But if they quarreled with neighbors, they simply fenced off from them with a giant stone wall. For example, in Fuerteventura, such a gigantic wall divides the entire island in half.

The Guanches, like the Egyptians, made mummies from their dead. Researcher Eliot Smith, in his book Migration of Early Cultures, wrote: “When a Guanche inhabitant dies, he is taken to a deep cave and laid on a stone, opening it and cleaning all the insides from his body.

Later, the body is washed with salt water and smeared with sheep fat with pine resin and crushed pumice stone. The body is then dried in the sun for 15 days. And when it completely dries up, the body is wrapped in sheep skins, then the body is placed in a cave next to its living quarters. "

Tenerife. Park of miniatures "Pueblo Chico". Guanches. Council of Elders - Tagoror.

Arrival of the conquistadors.

In 1360, almost the entire tribe was killed by the Spanish conquistadors, who entered the Gando Bay and were greeted with hostility by the local tribe. Since the tribe was very much inferior in its weapons to the Spaniards, it became easy prey for them. The last island to be conquered by the Spaniards was Tenerife. Most of the tribe, which survived, so as not to be captured, threw itself into the abyss.

And it is not clear that when the first Europeans arrived to the Canary Islands, the Guanche tribe was at the Neolithic stage of development, but already had a written language at that time. Scientists believe that rock inscriptions are from 2 to 2.5 thousand years old.

The Guanche tribe itself has long disappeared from the face of the earth, but their language and descendants still exist. The inhabitants of the Canary Islands consider only those whose ancestors have lived in the Canaries for at least 500 years. And if you, being on the islands, meet a tall red-haired man with blue eyes, do not hesitate, this is a native resident.

Monuments to the leaders of the Guanches. the island of Tenerife. Candelaria