Pyramids of Güímar: Tenerife's Ethnographic Park and Botanical Garden

What Are the Pyramids of Güímar?

The Parque Etnográfico y Jardín Botánico Pirámides de Güímar is an open-air museum and botanical garden built around six stepped, rectangular stone structures on the lower eastern slopes of Tenerife. It covers some 64,000 square metres of volcanic terrain in the municipality of Güímar, roughly 30 kilometres south of Santa Cruz, and the structures are only one part of it: the grounds also hold the Casa Chacona museum, an auditorium, several specialised gardens and a set of themed outdoor trails. On first approach the structures read as something genuinely strange in the landscape — tight, dry-stone platforms rising in geometric steps, oriented to the sunrise and sunset positions of the summer and winter solstices.

Locally the structures were long known as the morras de Chacona and taken for heaps of stone cleared by farmers working the lava fields. That reading was challenged in the early 1990s, after a local newspaper article reached the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, the man who crossed the Pacific on the balsa raft Kon-Tiki. He came to Güímar, argued that the construction was deliberate, and drew in the Canarian businessman and ferry magnate Fred. Olsen to fund the research and the creation of the park, which opened to the public in 1998. Archaeologists from the University of La Laguna excavated the complex between 1991 and 1998, and the park sets their academic work alongside Heyerdahl's own reading rather than settling on one story.

The Structures Themselves: What You Are Actually Looking At

Six stepped structures stand on the grounds, the largest rising to roughly 12 metres. They are built from rough volcanic basalt without mortar, their flat-topped platforms arranged in tiers that climb toward a narrow summit, with worked steps leading up the faces. The stones are fitted with care, the corners are clean and the alignments are consistent. Walking the perimeter and climbing to the panoramic terrace, it is the geometry that stays with you.

That geometry is also what keeps the discussion going. In 1991, researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias documented that the structures align with the sunrise and sunset of the summer and winter solstices. Who built them, when and why are separate questions, and the park deliberately keeps more than one answer on the table: the excavations carried out by the University of La Laguna, which date the stepped structures to the 19th century and tie them to the agricultural use of this land, and Heyerdahl's argument for an older, ceremonial function. You are handed the evidence and the competing interpretations rather than a single verdict, which is more interesting than a tidy label would be.

One of the more concrete finds sits underneath the complex. A volcanic tube runs beneath Pyramid 1, and inside it archaeologists documented the Chacona Cave, with ceramics, tools and organic remains linked to the Guanches, the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of Tenerife. Carbon-14 analysis returned dates between roughly 680 and 1020 CE, confirming a Guanche presence in this part of the valley more than a thousand years ago.

If you plan to visit other places associated with Tenerife's indigenous Guanche culture, consider combining the park with a trip to the Basilica of Candelaria, whose town was also a significant Guanche ceremonial centre, located on the same eastern coast just a short drive away.

Thor Heyerdahl and the Casa Chacona Museum

Heyerdahl believed the Canary Islands served as a mid-Atlantic waypoint on ancient trans-oceanic routes connecting Egypt, the Americas and Polynesia, and he read the Güímar structures as part of a pyramid-building tradition that spanned continents. The Casa Chacona museum, in a restored 19th-century building, is where that argument is laid out: galleries on cultural parallels between the Old and New World, one of the largest photographic collections of step pyramids anywhere, and the research carried out at the complex and in the Chacona Cave. The auditorium screens a documentary on the structures and on Heyerdahl's work, and the expedition rooms hold models and replicas of the vessels he sailed, among them Kon-Tiki and Ra II.

Mainstream archaeology has not endorsed Heyerdahl's broader trans-oceanic contact hypothesis, and the park does not pretend otherwise. His ideas are presented as the framework that prompted serious investigation, next to the academic findings that came out of it. Reading the panels in that spirit — as the record of an open scientific argument rather than a set of conclusions — is the most rewarding way through the museum.

The Gardens: A Botanical Collection, Not a Backdrop

The botanical side of the park is not decoration around the structures; it is half of what the place is, and it is named in the park's own title. Its best-known space is the Poison Garden, unique in the Canary Islands: more than 70 poisonous species from around the world laid out across 1,500 square metres, fenced and signposted, with panels on their toxicity, medicinal uses, geographic origin and the legends attached to them. It works for all ages, and it tends to be the part of the visit people describe first afterwards.

The Sustainable Garden, developed with the University of La Laguna, recreates the watercourse of a Canarian ravine together with the flora typical of those habitats. Its stream holds European eels, the only freshwater fish present in the Canary Islands, obtained through a collaboration with the Fundación Neotrópico. The space is built around environmental, economic and social sustainability, and the park's work here won the "Best General Sustainable Practice 2021" award from Turismo de Tenerife.

The Tropicarium is the research end of the botanical garden, also run with the University of La Laguna. Because it functions as a laboratory it is not normally open to visitors, although small groups are occasionally allowed short visits. It is worth asking at reception, because this is where the survival strategies of orchids and carnivorous plants are on display — the same plants that fascinated Charles Darwin.

Outdoors, the grounds are organised into themed trails that you can walk in any order:

• Wolfredo Wildpret Botanical Route Canarian endemics identified by scientific and common name, from the Canary Island palm and the cardón to the dragon tree and the Canary pine, with panels on their traditional uses and their role in the island's ecosystems.
• Export Products Route How sugar cane, wine, cochineal, bananas and tomatoes shaped Canarian trade and the wider economy, told through panels and historical photographs.
• Cultural Route Agriculture, livestock, fishing, crafts, traditions, mythology and piracy across the archipelago from the time of the conquest onward.
• Volcanic Route The geological formation of the Canary Islands, and how volcanism shaped both the landscapes and the climate you are standing in.
• Sensory Path A grounding area where you walk barefoot over different natural surfaces — a good stop with children, or after an hour of reading exhibition panels.

Exhibitions: Rapa Nui, Polynesia and an Ocean of Plastic

Two exhibitions produced by the Mata Ki Te Rangi Foundation of Easter Island sit within the park. "Rapa Nui: Extreme Survival" follows the Polynesian society that built a remarkable culture on a tiny, remote island over more than a millennium, and what its decline says about exhausting natural resources. "Colonizing Polynesia" covers the methodical settlement of the Pacific, still one of the most ambitious feats of navigation in human history. Both belong to the Premium itinerary.

"An Ocean… of Plastic" is the first permanent exhibition in Spain on plastic pollution in the sea. It traces how plastic reaches the ocean and what it does once it is there, then turns to interactive panels on production, consumption and waste, including a way of working out your own plastic footprint. It is included in the standard ticket, and the interactive framing makes it land harder than a panel display usually does.

Which Ticket to Choose

The two itineraries differ in content rather than comfort, and what separates them is precisely the part of the park that goes beyond the stepped structures.

• Pyramids and Much More — €12.50 adults, €6 children (7–12) The stepped structures and the panoramic terrace, the Casa Chacona museum, the auditorium documentary, the expedition rooms, the Sustainable Garden, "An Ocean… of Plastic" and the outdoor routes. Minimum one hour.
• Premium Experience — €18 adults, €8 children (7–12) Everything above plus the Poison Garden, the Rapa Nui and Colonizing Polynesia exhibitions, and the Tropicarium when it is open. Minimum two hours.
• Audio guide — €8 on top of admission Available in Spanish, English, German, French, Italian, Russian and Norwegian; request it at reception on arrival. Allow around 2.5 hours for the full circuit at your own pace.
• Guided tour — €22.50 About an hour with an expert guide, currently in Spanish, English and German, with French subject to availability. Worth booking in advance.
• Free and reduced entry Children under 7 go free, and Canarian residents pay reduced rates (roughly €8.50 and €14 for adults). School and educational groups have their own rates. Check the official site for current prices before you travel.

The Experience Layer: How a Visit Actually Unfolds

Entering from Calle Chacona, you pass through the ticketing area into the Casa Chacona museum, which covers Heyerdahl's biography, his expeditions and the research on the structures. The displays benefit from real artefacts and scale models. Plan 30 to 45 minutes here, plus the auditorium documentary, before heading outside.

Outside, paths lead between the structures and through the gardens, and the character of the walk changes as you go: open ground and clear sightlines immediately around the pyramids, then denser planting along the botanical route, the ravine recreation of the Sustainable Garden and the enclosed Poison Garden. The park's own advice — comfortable shoes, a hat and sunscreen — is sound, since the volcanic ground is uneven in places and the Güímar valley is one of the warmer, drier corners of the island. There are shaded picnic areas if you bring your own food, and the Kon-Tiki café looks out over the pyramids when you want to sit down. For photographers, the best light falls on the stepped faces in the morning, while the sun is still low in the east; by midday it flattens and the shadows disappear into the stone.

A few practical details make the visit easier. The facilities are adapted for people with reduced mobility, with accessible itineraries and audio guides; write to the park in advance if you need specifics. There are two car parks, one at the main entrance and one in the northern area. Dogs are welcome, one per adult. Photography for personal use is allowed throughout, while commercial shoots and drones need prior permission from the park.

The park sits on Tenerife's less-visited eastern coast, a stretch that rewards exploration. The quieter side of Tenerife between Güímar and Santa Cruz has a different character from the crowded southern resorts, with more agriculture, smaller towns and fewer tourists.

Getting There and Practical Logistics

By car, the most direct route from Santa Cruz is the TF-1 motorway southbound to exit 22 for Güímar, then local roads toward the park. Signs are present but not always consistent, so plug the address (Calle Chacona s/n, Güímar) into a navigation app for the final approach. Parking is available at the main entrance, with a second car park in the northern area.

By public transport, TITSA lines 120 and 128 connect Santa Cruz de Tenerife with Güímar; coming from the south of the island, take line 111 to Güímar and change to line 120 for the town centre. From the stop it is a walk of roughly 900 metres, about 15 minutes, on flat to gently sloping ground. Timetables and fares change periodically, so check with TITSA before travelling. Taxis run to the park from Güímar town centre and from Puertito de Güímar if you would rather skip the walk.

For those renting a car or planning a wider eastern coast itinerary, the park pairs well with a morning at the Basilica of Candelaria followed by an afternoon in Güímar. If you are working out where this fits into a broader trip, the one-week Tenerife itinerary can help structure the eastern route alongside the island's other major sights.

Is It Worth Your Time? A Clear-Eyed Take

The park rewards visitors who arrive curious. Read a little about Heyerdahl and a little about Canarian flora before you go, and both halves of the place open up. What it is not is a monumental site: the stepped structures are striking but modest beside Mesoamerican pyramids, and anyone coming purely for visual spectacle should calibrate expectations. What you get instead is breadth — six structures whose history is still being argued over, a botanical collection with real substance, and exhibitions running from Rapa Nui to ocean plastic.

For families, the outdoor trails, the sensory path, the Poison Garden and the family exploration workshop make this an easier sell than most museums on the island. For couples and solo travellers, the draw is the mix of Heyerdahl's biography, ancient navigation and the gardens. If you are short on time and choosing between the island's headline sights, Teide or the Anaga mountains may come first — but half a day here resembles nothing else in Tenerife.

If your Tenerife trip is focused on natural landscapes, Mount Teide and the Anaga mountains will deliver more visually dramatic experiences. But if you have a day on the eastern side of the island, the park earns its place on the itinerary.