The Canary Islands have often been linked to the mythical continent of Atlantis - a prosperous land that disappeared without trace after being sunk into the sea by the angry gods of ancient Greece.
For centuries, even after the Spanish conquest, it was believed that the islands were the uppermost peaks of the lost continent of Atlantis.
According to popular legend, Atlantis was a large landmass bigger "than Libya and Asia together" and was located beyond the Pillars of Hercules, or what are nowadays known as the Straits of Gibraltar.
It was a dominion of Poseidon, god of the sea, and was inhabited by a race known as the Atlants who were descendents of Atlas - son of a god and a mortal woman. They were an extremely prosperous people who communicated their skills, civilization and notions of justice and peace to other races and maintained peaceful relationships.
However, in time their harmonious culture degenerated and they became greedy and warlike. Other scholars of mythology suggest that they discovered the secrets of the gods and secrets of cosmic energies and forces which could destroy mankind.
These discoveries angered the gods and according to the legend Zeus, king of the gods, ordered the land's destruction. In the course of a single night volcanoes and tidal waves destroyed Atlantis in a disaster of cosmic proportions.
All that remained of this once great continent were the islands of the Azores, Madeira, Canaries and Cape Verde. These were the lost continent's highest summits. Its palaces and temples are still to be found in the bottom of the sea, a sea which took its name from Atlantis: The Atlantic Ocean - so the legend goes...
