Pascal Devroye

Timanfaya

Strange, lugubrious, sinister, astonishing, fascinating; these are the impressions that the moonlit landscape made on me before the first rays of sunrise. The more the day dawned, the more magical became its colours. The procession of camels made a continuous ballet as they carried hordes of impatient tourists to the summit on the burning ground. One morning, surprisingly, a very violent Sahara wind swept across the island. Everything was covered in sand, even the sky. The sun's rays could scarcely penetrate. All day I struggled against these wild elements. The same evening, the storms abated, and the Fire Mountain reappeared, its multicoloured rocks fascinating once more. Then the sun set and time stopped, leaving me alone contemplating this marvel. What I had just admired at Lanzarote, the Guanches had discovered a long time ago and called it TIMANFAYA (the Ground of Fire).