15 Facts About Guanches

Guanches were the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 kilometres west of Africa.

The Guanches were the only native people known to have lived in the Macaronesian archipelago region before the arrival of Europeans, as there is no evidence that the other Macaronesian archipelagos were inhabited.

In 2017, the first genome-wide data from the Guanches confirmed a North African origin and that they were genetically most similar to ancient North African Berber peoples of the nearby African mainland.

Apart from the marvelous and fanciful content of this history, this account would suggest that Guanches had sporadic contacts with populations from the mainland.

In times of drought, the Guanches drove their flocks to consecrated grounds, where the lambs were separated from their mothers in the belief that their plaintive bleating would melt the heart of the Great Spirit.

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Mount Teide was sacred to the aboriginal Guanches and since 2007 is a World Heritage Site.

Guanches had priests or shamans who were connected with the gods and ordained hierarchically:.

Benesmen or Benesmer was a festival of the agricultural calendar of the Guanches to be held after the gathering of crops devoted to Chaxiraxi .

In Tenerife during the summer solstice, the Guanches were accustomed to kill livestock and throw them into a fire as an offering to the gods.

Guanches wore garments made from goat skins or woven from plant fibers called Tamarcos, which have been found in the tombs of Tenerife.

The examined Guanches were found to have closest genetic affinities to modern Moroccan Berbers, Canary Islanders and Spaniards.

E1a*, E1b1b1a* and E1b1b1b* are common lineages among Berbers, and their high frequency among the Guanches were considered evidence that they were migrants from North Africa.

The results suggested that the North African population from whom the Benahoaritas and other Guanches descended have been largely replaced by subsequent migrations.

The evidence supported the notion that the Guanches were descended from a Berber-like population who had migrated from mainland North Africa.

Guanches were found to the genetically very similar to the Kelif el Boroud people.