Timanfaya

The Timanfaya national park was founded in 1974 and is probably the number one tourist attraction in Lanzarote. The park is the best existing volcanic landscape in Europe and probably the world apart from maybe Hawaii. Lanzarote was designated a Biosphere reserve in1993 by UNESCO because.of its significance in vulcanology. All of the Canary Islands are volcanic in origin dating back 30 million years but Lanzarote has the most recent episode of volcanic activity. Almost the entire western part of the island was subject to volcanic eruptions from several volcanic cones as recently as 1730 with a less severe episode in 1824. The eruptions filled the sky with darkness and viscous lava spewed out destroying 13 villages in all including the village of Timanfaya where the maim eruption occurred and which gives its name to the national park. What was previously precious fertile farming land was subjugated by floods of molten rock or lava right down to the sea where it solidified en mass and extended the area of the island.
 The legacy today we are left with is over two dozen dormant and or extinct volcanoes and a vast area of bad lands where nothing except lichen will grow. Cesar Manrique, the Island`s famous artist was influential in the openingn of the park to be kept as a natural landscape. There are guided tours through the park on foot that have to be booked well in advance. The only other way to view the eerie and strange contortions of the rock is a guided coach tour round the narrow twisting roads that have been constructed through the lava field . Entrance to the park is around 8 euros per car. Once in the park you park the car by the Restaurant El Diablo and board a coach to take you round the park. The trip takes about 45 minutes and is then followed up by a demonstration of the heat that is still under the ground in the dormant volcano that the restaurant sits above.. Just 10 centimetres below ground the temperature is about 160 degrees C and 10 metres down it is 600 degrees C.

You can have a meal in the restaurant in which the meats have been cooked over the heat from the volcano. The meals are reasonably priced considering this is a money making tourist attraction and I would reccomend you try it .
For a much more detaoiled description of the volcanic activity on the island and excellent images click HERE