There are two known Litófonos in Lanzarote, this one called Litófono de la Peña de Luis Cabrera in Guatiza and the other is Soo.
A Litófono is a special rock formation that was used by the Guanches to produce sounds of different tones. The Litófono de la Peña de Luis Cabrera is situated in between the villages of Guatiza and Teseguite. This particular Litófono has three groups of rocks which would allow one person to beat 18 different sounds from the same location. When visiting the site you will find a selection of handy sized rocks placed on surrounding ledges that allow you to play a tune! The above photo is of César Manrique and Pepe Dámaso visiting the site of the Litófono in Guatiza (courtesy of www.fcmanrique.org).
If you like Geocaching, there is a cache Guanche Mystery 4 hidden at this location which makes the location very easy to find. There is another cache Guanche Mystery 5 close by so we set out for a walk to combine the two. We exited the LZ-1 at Guatiza, taking the first left turning towards the village to cross the bridge over the main road and left again into a rough track for a short distance before parking. There was a large white almacen / house with two rectangular fields of picón, we took a track alongside the edge of the field to the right and found the outcrop of rocks almost immediately. We explored the rocks and Miguel found the cache without too much of a search. After a bit of rock bashing and admiring the view we headed across country uphill towards a tunnel where picón had been mined.
The tunnels aren’t deep, a torch isn’t needed to explore these holes now occupied by pigeons. We picked up a trail of a path continuing clockwise up and around the base of Montaña Guenia, here the path became a dirt track and a stunning view opened up across the landscape to the rural villages of El Mojón, Teseguite and the Castle, Castillo Santa Bárbara in Teguise.
As we rounded the corner another panoramic view was uncovered with the village of Los Valles and the windmill farm. Our focus was on how we could access the rim of the crater at the top of Montaña Guenia where we could see the outline of the mysterious hole which was the target for the next cache. We started climbing upwards, the landscape was treacherous with loose stones underfoot. We scaled about half way up the incline when common sense started to kick in, whilst it was passable with the right footwear it would be very difficult to come back down this route. We took the decision to descend back to the valley and continue around to see if we could pick up a proper path to the summit.
During the descent there was an area of loose stones with worn pieces of pottery scattered amongst them which was really interesting and we have no explanation as to why they were there. I picked up an assortment of different bits of pottery which you can see above.
We found a track leading into the centre of the corona but decided to leave the search for the second cache for another visit, this mysterious ancient hole carved into the rim of the Montaña Guenia is believed to be linked to the winter solstice and created by the Guanches. We picked up a narrow path leading past the water pumping station which took us back to our starting point.
We really enjoyed our exploration of Montaña Guenia, this is an area steeped in history with some incredible views. The circular walk was 4.5km about half on path / track and half over rough ground.
More walks you can do in the north of the island.
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