Lanzarote has a much more recent volcanic history than Tenerife - the cataclysmic eruptions that covered most of the island in molten lava and volcanic ash took place between 1730 and 1736.
The seven-year series of eruptions buried 11 villages and drove the population from the island, which had previously been the garden of the Canaries. After the eruptions stopped, the farmers returned and found innovative ways to cultivate parts of their ash-covered land.
The most dramatic of the volcanic landscapes, including a still-active volcano, are now protected as the UNESCO-listed Timanfaya National Park.
You literally have to see it to believe it: huge areas of unearthly terrain covered in swirls of solidified lava, cracked into crevices by more molten lava still moving beneath it.
To see the entire park, go to Islote de Hilario, at the top of a volcanic cone, where park rangers demonstrate the tremendous heat just beneath your feet. Dry brush thrown into a depression bursts into flame, and water poured down a pipe erupts back out in a boiling geyser. At a restaurant here, you can eat chicken you've watched grill over heat from the volcano below.
