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Gran Canaria travel guide, guidebook and phrasebooks, download .pdf chapters on Lonely Planet.
Gran Canaria; originally meaning 'Great [Island] of Dogs') is the second most populous island of the Canary Islands, with a population of 838,397 which constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago. Located in the Atlantic Ocean about 150 kilometers (~93 miles) off the northwestern coast of Africa and about 1350 km (~838 miles) from Europe. The capital of the island, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is also the largest city and the capital of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands. Gran Canaria was populated by the Canarii (Guanches), who may have arrived as early as 500 BC. The Canarii called the island Tamar‡n or Land of the Brave. After over a century of European (French, Portuguese...) incursions and attempts at conquest, the island was conquered on April 29, 1483, after a campaign that lasted 5 years, by the Kingdom of Castile, with the support of Queen Isabella I, a conquest which turned out to be an important step towards the expansion of the unified Spain. The capital city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was founded on June 24, 1478, under the name 'Real de Las Palmas', by Juan Rej—n, head of the invading Castilian army. In 1492, Christopher Columbus anchored in the Port of Las Palmas (and spent some time on the island) on his first trip to the Americas. Gran Canaria is located southeast of Tenerife and west of Fuerteventura. The island is of volcanic origin, mostly made of fissure vents. Gran Canaria's surface area is 1,560 km² and its maximum altitude is 1,949 meters (Pico de Las Nieves). It has a round shape, with a diameter of approximately 50 km ... more on Wikipedia.The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
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