Seen from the sea, Pico de Teide is enveloped in striking colors. White snow-covered peak gradually gives way to dark purples of the volcanic slopes, which lies over the intense green of vegetation bordered by the blue ultramarine ocean.
In travel guides, the island of Tenerife, the largest from the Canary Islands, as almost half of the Netherlands- is described as a mountainous island, with a triangular form, dominated by the peak of Teide. In reality, the island is nothing but an extension of this majestic mountain. Below its top of 3718 m, the highest in Spain, forested slopes descend to the valleys in the north and south beaches.
Pico de Teide is not just a picturesque background for the seaside resorts of Tenerife, but the main attraction of an extraordinary landscape, created by a series of violent volcanic explosions. Its conical peak rises in the crater of an old volcano, at 2000 m above sea level- a natural amphitheater of sand and pumice.
For those who visited the island in the Victorian era, crossing the crater was a very dangerous adventure.
Once there, visitors can look into the still smoking crater, to admire then the view that opens onto the sea and other islands. Those who arrive at dawn can be witnessed the event called “one of the sublime achievements of nature” – Pico de Teide rising sun.
