Pyramids of Güímar - Research History - Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl

In 1990, adventurer and publisher, Thor Heyerdahl, became aware of the "Canarian Pyramids" by reading an article written by Francisco Padrón in the Tenerife newspaper "Diario de Avisos" detailing "real pyramids on the Canaries". As Heyerdahl had hypothesized a transatlantic link between Egypt and Central America, he became intrigued by the Güímar pyramids and relocated to Tenerife. There Heyerdahl researched possible parallels between the Canarian terrace structures and pyramid structures in Egypt and Central America in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as ceremonial areas.

Heyerdahl hypothesised that the Canarian pyramids formed a temporal and geographic stopping point on voyages between ancient Egypt and the Maya civilization, initiating a controversy in which historians, esoterics, archaeologists, astronomers, and those with a general interest in history took part.