We really wanted to see the Pyramids of Güímar while on Tenerife. Something that we read and also saw lots of info about online so we wanted to see how they look and how it is presented on site. We arrive quite late and have to convince them to let us in as they tell us that we won’t be able to see everything and we say that we don’t want to see the addons really just the pyramids and finally we can get in.
So what is the controversy about? It is about the age of the pyramids. Thor Heyerdahl and his people are insisting that the pyramids are built by people that crossed from the Americas while the majority of scientists and analysis done are showing that they are from the 19th century and likely used for farming.
The exhibits are interesting enough and we like that they point out that scientists are saying that they are newer, we expected to be more biased towards the Thor Heyerdahl theory. Our, layman, opinion is that there would have been significant effort and manpower needed to build the pyramids so there would have a serious colonization of which there are little other signs. So we agree with the scientists basically :).
We get outside the museums as fast as we can as we want to see the pyramids. the views of the mountains is great but where are the pyramids? Finally we find the right trail and we can see them in the distance, time to hurry.
No matter the controversy they are still impressive, it would be great to point out how they would have been used for farming but the majority of panels here are ignoring that hypothesis, of course.
There are a few smaller attractions on the way like an exhibit of endemic plants, another about pirates and so on. As we make short stops we soon notice that we are already quite far from the main building and there are only about 20 minutes left till closing time.
So we don’t have time to go round the pyramids, the area is quite arge really, so we take photos enjoying the now empty area and then hurry back towards the entrance.
Hurry yes, but not so much that we don’t stop to take photos of birds along the trail. Quite a few of them, at least they don’t care about the controversy and just enjoy the protected open area.
We find another small exhibit on the way back and as we have a few more minutes left we enter it to look at the models of the famous ships Thor Heyerdahl used to prove his different theories. We have read accounts of his trips way back and as such it is a great shrine to a very interesting person who has proven some things are possible that most historians at the time didn’t necessarily agree. And then we exit right at closing time and drive south to the hotel where we will stay to last night in Tenerife.
