Rock pillar
Behind the village.
H. Zell — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Falk2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · quatre mains — CC BY 2.0 · Falk2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · FrDr — CC BY 4.0
Masca is a small mountain village on Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands, set at 650 metres in the Teno mountains, which run to the island's northwestern tip, in the northwest of the island. Around 90 people live there today. Masca was originally a Guanche settlement before the Spanish conquest in 1496. The village lies at the head of the deep Masca Gorge, surrounded by woods, palms and cypresses. Stone houses with red tiled roofs cling to narrow rocky ledges, with a towering pointed rock pillar rising behind them and sharp volcanic peaks all around. A narrow, tightly winding mountain road snakes over the green slopes to reach it. Visitors stroll the village and photograph the gorge and peaks, and some hike the gorge trail down to a beach on the Atlantic, a strenuous route of about 3 hours each way that can be dangerous without proper preparation. The road in is narrow, so drive with great care.
Behind the village.
A trail to the sea.
Tightly winding.
Masca, Teno Mountains, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Strenuous, about 3 hours each way.
Narrow and winding.
