Mount Teide is the third highest volcanic structure and most voluminous in the world after Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It is the highest peak on the Canary Islands and in the whole of Spain.The formation began 170,000 years ago following the giant collapse of the former volcanic edifice, which was even bigger than the one that stands today. That is how Las Cañadas caldera was formed. Today we can only see part of the escarpment because as the inside of Teide grew, it gradually filled the caldera with its materials.
Stratovolcanoes grow because the successive lava eruptions, with increasingly viscous lava, settle one on top of another. In the last 20,000 years, most eruptions (Montaña Blanca, Pico Cabras, etc.)
have taken place around the base of Teide, because it is harder for lava to spew from the very peak at such a great height.According to the beliefs of the Canary Island aboriginals (guanches), Guayota, the king of evil, the devil, lived inside Teide (hell), and he kidnapped the god Magec (god of light and sun), and took him down inside Teide.
The guanches asked Achamán - their supreme god - for mercy, and he managed to defeat Guayota, rescue Magec from the bowels of Teide and plug up the crater. It is said that the whitish plug that Achamán put in place is the last cone of the volcano, crowning Teide.