Pirámides de Güímar

The Pirámides de Güímar are a complex of six stepped stone structures in the coastal town of Güímar on the eastern flank of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Each pyramid is built from layers of dry-laid volcanic basalt, arranged in broad terraced steps ascending to a flat summit platform. The tallest of the six reaches approximately 12 metres in height, and several feature staircases cut into their southern faces. The structures were long familiar to local residents but entered international scientific debate in 1991 when Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl — renowned for his Kon-Tiki and Ra transoceanic raft expeditions — visited the site and argued publicly that the pyramids had been deliberately constructed for ceremonial or astronomical purposes, possibly reflecting ancient contact between Atlantic, Mediterranean, and pre-Columbian American cultures. Heyerdahl's hypothesis attracted immediate controversy. Spanish archaeologists and the Cabildo of Tenerife reviewed the available evidence and concluded that the most scientifically supportable interpretation was that the structures were majanos — stone-clearing mounds built by 19th-century agricultural labourers who removed volcanic field stones to create cultivable land, a practice well documented across the Canary Islands. Documentary records indicate that land in the Güímar area was systematically cleared and cultivated from at least the early 19th century. Heyerdahl disputed this reading, pointing to what he described as the precision of the terracing, the deliberately levelled summit platforms, and a notable archaeoastronomical alignment: the western staircase faces of the main pyramids align with the setting sun at the summer solstice. Independent archaeoastronomical studies confirmed the alignment but did not resolve whether it was intentional or incidental to the structures' orientation relative to the landscape. In 1998 the site was acquired by the Fred Olsen Group, a Norwegian shipping company with longstanding ties to the Canary Islands, and developed as the Parque Etnográfico Pirámides de Güímar, with Heyerdahl serving as patron until his death in 2002. The park presents both the agricultural-clearing and ancient-monument interpretations openly and without polemical bias. The on-site museum houses full-scale replica hulls of Heyerdahl's Ra II and Kon-Tiki vessels and introduces his broader body of work on transoceanic diffusion. A botanical garden of Canarian endemic plants — including tabaiba, cardón cactus, and drago — surrounds and connects the pyramid structures. Guided tours in Spanish and English are available daily. The entry fee is €12 for adults.