The stone amphitheatre
Rings descending like theatre tiers into the quarry pit.
Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**A stone amphitheatre descending into a disused volcanic ash quarry, holding more than a thousand species of cactus โ and the last work Cรฉsar Manrique completed** โ at Guatiza. โ **The site was a quarry**: **a pit from which volcanic ash had been dug** โ **which Manrique turned in 1990 into a circular amphitheatre** โ **stone rings descending like theatre tiers**, **with plants on every ring**. โ **The collection is genuinely large**: **more than **1,400 species** and some **10,000 plants**** from the Americas, Madagascar and the Canaries. โ **And the site is chosen with intelligence**: **Guatiza is a district of **prickly pear** cultivation** โ โ **grown to raise **the cochineal insect** for a valuable red dye**; **so the garden sits in its agricultural context**. โ **And a restored old windmill** stands above it.
Rings descending like theatre tiers into the quarry pit.
A restored mill above the garden with the overhead view.
Cacti from the Americas, Madagascar and the Canaries.
Carretera General del Norte, 35544 Guatiza, Las Palmas, Spain
**An insect crushed for a red dye that was among the world's most valuable goods โ and its cultivation shaped the island's economy for a century.** โ **What it is**: ***cochinilla* is a small scale insect** โ **living parasitically on **prickly pear pads****; โ **and the bodies of its females contain **carminic acid**** โ **which yields **a crimson-red dye** of exceptional fastness and purity**. โ **Why it was precious**: **before synthetic dyes, a fast red was **the hardest colour to produce****; โ **and cochineal gave a red that did not fade** โ **so it was used for royal dress, British army redcoats and painting**; โ **and exported at nearly its weight in gold**. โ **The history**: **it originates in Mexico** โ โ **and Spain monopolised it for centuries under strict secrecy**; โ **then it was introduced to the Canaries in the 19th century** when the vine crop collapsed, **and became **Lanzarote's principal cash crop****. โ **Then the collapse**: **Europeans invented **synthetic aniline dyes** in the 1860s** โ โ **far cheaper**; **so the price of cochineal collapsed and the island's economy with it**. โ **And a partial return today**: โ **demand for **natural colourings** in food and cosmetics has revived small-scale production** โ **and you see it on ingredient labels as E120**. โ **And the prickly-pear fields around Guatiza are what remains of it.**
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