__NOTOC__ The Punta de Anaga Lighthouse () is an active

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

on the

Canary island The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the continent being 100 kilometres (62 mi ...

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

, in the municipality of

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife (; locally ), commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz, is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and one of the capitals of the Canary Islands, along with Las Palmas. Santa Cruz has a ...

. Punta de Anaga is the most northerly point on the island, and is where the

Anaga Anaga massif () is a mountain range in the northeastern part of the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The highest point is 1,024 m (Cruz de Taborno). It stretches from the Punta de Anaga in the northeast to Cruz del Carmen in the sou ...

mountain range meets the sea. It was originally proposed to construct a second order lighthouse on the

Savage Islands The Savage Islands or Selvagens Islands ( ; also known as the Salvage Islands) are a small Portugal, Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, south of Madeira and north of the Canary Islands.30,000), white-faced storm-petrel (>80,0 ...

, which lie 165 km north of Tenerife. But the sovereignty of the islands was an issue, so a first order light was commissioned at Punta de Anaga instead.

History

Completed in 1864, it is one of the oldest lighthouses in the Canaries; Punta de Jandía on

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spain, Spanish archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa. the island had a population of that constitut ...

was also opened in the same year. Built in a similar style to other Canarian 19th century lights, it consists of a white washed single storey house, with dark volcanic rock used for the masonry detailing. A twelve metre high tower, with a twin gallery is attached to the seaward side of the house, facing the Atlantic Ocean. The lighthouse still retains its original

Fresnel Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Newton's corpuscular th ...

lens, which was supplied by Barbier and Fenestre of Paris. With a focal height of above the sea, its light can be seen for 21 nautical miles. The lighthouse is maintained by the

port authority A port authority (less commonly a port district) is a governmental or quasi-governmental public authority for a special-purpose district usually formed by a legislative body (or bodies) to operate ports and other transportation infrastructure. ...

of the

Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, also Province of Santa Cruz (), is a province of Spain, consisting of the western part of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands. It consists of about half of the Atlantic archipelago: the islands o ...

(Autoridad Portuaria de Santa Cruz de Tenerife), and is registered under the international Admiralty number D2820 and has the NGA identifier of 113–23852.

Geography and climate

Punta de Anaga has a hot semi-arid climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''BSh''; Trewartha: ''BSab'') with an annual precipitation of only and no more than 62 days of precipitation.

References

External links

Comisión de faros

Autoridad Portuaria de Santa Cruz de Tenerife
{{authority control Lighthouses in Tenerife Lighthouses completed in 1864

History

Geography and climate

See also

References

External links