Cueva de los Verdes

How the tube formed

The cave began as a stream of lava from Monte Corona flowing towards the sea. Its upper surface cooled into a solid crust while molten lava continued to move underneath. When that lava drained away, the crust remained as a roof over the empty channel. Cueva de los Verdes is part of that hollow structure, rather than a cave excavated by water through softer rock.

The wider cave system extends for 6 kilometres above sea level and another 1.5 kilometres below the sea. Around 20 roof collapses created openings known locally as jameos, and one of these forms the entrance to Cueva de los Verdes. Those dimensions describe the wider system, not the length of a visitor walk.

The cave lies within a protected natural area. Jameos del Agua occupies another part of the same tube, nearer the coast, but its gardens, salt lake and Manrique-designed cultural spaces make it a different attraction. Here, the developed attraction is within the cave passages themselves.

Illuminated passages and concert hall

Two kilometres of the cave system were developed for tourism in the 1960s, with coloured lights illuminating the walls. The visible surfaces are the remains of the lava channel and its cooled roof, so the visit follows a structure created by moving molten rock. The lighting is a later intervention, added when the cave was adapted for visitors rather than a natural property of the stone.

Near the entrance and exit is a concert hall built into the cave. It has about 15 to 20 rows, with 26 seats in each row, and can accommodate up to 500 people. The hall gives part of the underground system a performance use alongside its role as a visitor attraction; its presence does not mean a concert accompanies a cave visit.

Long before the tourism development, inhabitants from across Lanzarote used the cave to shelter from pirates and raiders. That earlier use adds a practical human history to the passages: the enclosed volcanic space served as refuge before lighting and seating were installed.

A cave used for shelter

Before Cueva de los Verdes became a tourist attraction, its underground spaces offered shelter to people from across Lanzarote. In earlier centuries, inhabitants hid here from pirates and raiders. The same volcanic roof that now encloses illuminated visitor passages then provided concealment within the lava landscape. Its history is therefore not limited to geology or the later development of a concert venue.

The change to a visitor attraction came in the 1960s, when two kilometres of the system were developed and coloured lighting was introduced along the cave walls. Seating in the concert hall brought another use to the underground space. These additions sit within a structure that began around 3,000 years ago, when lava flowing from Monte Corona cooled at the surface and drained beneath its hardened crust.

The layers of use remain distinct: a naturally formed tube, a refuge during raids, and a developed attraction with illuminated passages and a performance space. None required the cave itself to be excavated as a conventional underground building.

Cave passages or cultural spaces

The closest comparison is Jameos del Agua, which occupies the same volcanic tube nearer the coast. At Cueva de los Verdes, development brought visitors into cave passages, lighting the walls and adding a concert hall near the entrance and exit. The principal structure is the drained lava channel beneath its cooled roof, entered through an opening caused by a collapse.

Jameos del Agua uses larger openings in the tube for César Manrique's cultural centre. Its subterranean salt lake, gardens, emerald-green pool, restaurant, museum and auditorium create a more varied arrangement of natural and designed spaces. The lake also supports tiny endemic blind squat lobsters, giving that attraction an ecological focus not shared by the developed passages described here.

Timanfaya National Park offers a different volcanic visit again, with a coach route across eruption-shaped terrain and a demonstration of underground heat. Cueva de los Verdes is the option centred on being inside the volcanic structure, beneath the crust left when a flowing stream of lava emptied.

What to look for

• Follow developed cave passages beneath the cooled roof of a lava stream
• See the volcanic cave walls illuminated by coloured lights
• Look at the underground concert hall near the entrance and exit
• Enter through a jameo formed by a collapsed lava-tube roof
• See the cave spaces once used as refuge from raiders