Sometimes, in a bar or on a car journey what you most need to know is a surprising piece of trivia. So here are few eyebrow raising facts about Lanzarote.
FACT NUMBER 1
Lanzarote holds the world record for the largest, sweet potato. The massive tuber weighed 37 kgs and was grown in Güime.
FACT NUMBER 2
In the film 1,000,000 Years BC, Raquel Welch is chased by a giant turtle on Papagayo and snatched by a pterodactyl at El Golfo.
FACT NUMBER 3
Lanzarote’s Papagayo beach is where the modern age of European settler colonialism started in 1402. The ensuing conquest of the Canaries was a “dry-run” for Spain’s later conquest of the Americas.
FACT NUMBER 4
Two Dr. Whos have filmed episodes on Lanzarote. They were Peter Davison in 1984 and Peter Capaldi in 2014.
FACT NUMBER 5
David Cameron is the only British PM to set foot on Lanzarote. He holidayed here in 2014 and returned with his family in 2016, three months before his resignation.
FACT NUMBER 6
In 1617, Sir Walter Raleigh raided Arrecife while returning from his last expedition to find the mythical city of El Dorado. His breaking of peace treaties with Spain on that voyage cost him his head the following year.
FACT NUMBER 7
Megalodons once swam off the coast of Lanzarote, and several fossilised eggs of flightless ostrich-type birds have been found on the island. No one knows how they got here.
FACT NUMBER 8
Lanzarote is named after Italian explorer Lancelotto Malocello, who was named after Sir Lancelot, the gallant Knight of King Arthur’s Round Table.
FACT NUMBER 9
Stone Roses guitarist John Squire spent childhood holidays on Lanzarote and returned with the band to shoot the video for their top 10 hit Fools Gold.