Lanzarote, the most easterly of Spain's seven Canary Islands, has managed to harness the calamity of volcanic catastrophes into a tidy garden of sugar-cube villages and compact resorts within a lunar landscape.

Sahara of the sea
Although Spanish by name and Spanish by nature, the island is geographically cosier to the Sahara than to Spain. Climatically too, it has more in common with Africa than Europe. Rain is a virtual rarity and the island receives less precipitation than parts of the Sahara.

Incredible volcanoes
In Timanfaya National Park you'll find the Montañas del Fuego (Fire Mountains) where in 1730 one of the world's most violent and long-lasting eruptions took place. It devastated much of western Lanzarote, wiping out entire towns and villages, and bruised the blue sky a deep and dark black for six whole years.

Eco credentials
Nowadays the face of Lanzarote has been shaped as much by the work of one man as by Mother Nature. The late Cesar Manarique, an artist turned eco-protector, spent much of his later life successfully campaigning to minimise the environmental impact of the emerging tourism industry. To date almost no high-rise constructions blot the skyline and a policy of traditional building styles has been rigorously maintained.