The Canary Islands lie in the Atlantic Ocean, 100 kilometers west of the Moroccan coast. They consist of seven larger islands: Tenerife, Fuertenventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and Hierro, and four smaller ones: La Graciosa, Alegreza, Lobos and Montafla Clara.

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The formation of this archipelago can be attributed to the movements of the African and European plates which, in the middle of the Cretaceous period (about 100 million years ago), caused the raising of the Alps. The rocks connected with these events and therefore representing the most ancient part of the archipelago have been found in Fuertenventura.
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The particular geographic position of these islands enabled the conservation of many kinds of tropical and sub-tropical vegetation which in the past could also be found in the Mediterranean basin but has disappeared as a consequence of two great catastrophic events: the desertisation process and a series of glacial cycles.