Tiny El Hierro is to invest in making a popular tourist spot even more attractive by building a small astronomy park there.
The island authorities have earmarked approximately 100,000 euros for a project to add a star-gazing facility to the current El Julan Cultural Park, which is one of El Hierro’s most important visitor sites and offers valuable access to its archaeological past and information on its earliest inhabitants. The Park features a series of petroglyphs (engravings on rocks) by the native inhabitants, known as Bimbaches, and the remains of an ancient meeting place used by them.
The idea is to build a mini-observatory on the site to enable visitors to study the heavens and learn about the stars and planets visible from a location which is virtually devoid of light pollution and therefore an excellent spot for star-gazing.
According to the island’s Cabildo, which has just published the tender for the observatory and other improvements for El Julan, the project will be part-financed by the European Union’s Next Generation Fund, one of the goals of which is to help tourist destinations become more sustainable.
The Canaries already offer extensive astronomical benefits, not least on Tenerife and La Palma, both of which have renowned observatories with giant telescopes where some of the world’s most important astrophysics research is carried out.
Photo: El Julan Park
