Cueva de los Verdes

The Cueva de los Verdes is a lava tube in the north of Lanzarote, a tunnel left behind when rivers of molten rock from the La Corona volcano flowed towards the sea. As the surface of the flow cooled and hardened into a crust, the lava beneath kept moving and eventually drained away, leaving a hollow passage. The whole system runs for more than seven kilometres from the volcano to the coast and continues under the sea as the Túnel de la Atlántida; in about twenty places the roof has collapsed, forming the openings the islanders call jameos.

For centuries the cave was a hiding place: islanders sheltered here from the Berber corsairs who periodically struck Lanzarote, and the name is said to come from a local family, the Verdes, who kept animals in it. In the 1960s the artist Jesús Soto prepared a path through about a kilometre of the tube and lit it with carefully placed lamps that pick out the textures of the rock — lava stalactites and the lines left on the walls by successive levels of the flow — and the cave opened to the public in 1964. It is run by the island's network of art, culture and tourism centres, alongside the nearby Jameos del Agua on the same tube.

A visit is a guided walk of about fifty minutes through chambers of shifting height and colour, including a hall used as an auditorium for concerts of classical music, jazz and flamenco, where the acoustics of the rock are remarkable. The route ends with a surprise that the guides are asked not to reveal, and it is worth not reading about it beforehand. The cave lies within the protected natural monument of the Malpaís de La Corona.

Getting there

The cave is in the municipality of Haría in the north of Lanzarote; the nearest larger town is Teguise, about 17 km away. César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport (ACE) is about 29 km away.