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History of the Canary Islands: The fortunate islands |
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History of the Canary Islands:
THE FORTUNATE ISLANDS
The Canary islands were called the 'Fortunate islands' by the greeks because of the climate and the location.
Marinus from Tyre wrote in 120 AD that the world was bounded in west by the 'Fortunate islands'. But Claudius Ptolemy, 90 - 168 AD, made the islands famous when he put them as the prime meridian in his 'Geographia'. His map was the most famous world map and was in use for more than 1500 years.
The Canaries were used as the prime meridian untill the 19 th century. Mostly the meridian went through the western part of El Hierro, which is called 'the meridian island'. Sometimes you can also find maps where the meridian goes through the mountain of Teide on Tenerife. |
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