Gorge and Village Masca

Source ru.wikipedia.org

Masca is a village in the west of Tenerife. The village is located in the mountains at the top of the same name gorge Masca at an altitude of about 600 meters, 11 kilometers from the municipal center. The village is permanently inhabited by about 100 inhabitants.

One of the most visited places by tourists in Tenerife. Masca is interesting for its preserved atmosphere of the old Canarian village and the surrounding scenery around the village.

Until the 1960s, only mountain trails were used to get to Masca. There was no electricity and no modern conveniences in the village. Only after the opening of the road from Buenavista del Norte to Santiago del Teide, Masca became accessible to people.

Today, the main occupation of the villagers is farming and serving tourists, who hike in the Masca Gorge. There are several restaurants and tourist stores in the village.

On weekends in the village works museum, which presents household items of former generations of inhabitants of the village and the history of hiking trails in the gorge.

Masca Gorge is one of the deepest in Tenerife. Its maximum depth is about 1,300 meters.

From Masca village to the ocean there is a popular hiking route with a total length of about 6 kilometers.

Tourists usually arrive to Masca village by car and walk down through the gorge from the village to the ocean, where there is a small pier from which tourist ships take them to the resort of Los Gigantes.

Descent time takes about 3 hours, climbing about 4 hours for the average tourist. The route is reminiscent of the Samaria Gorge on Crete in terms of the complexity of the passage, the surrounding scenery and methods of passage and delivery of tourists (car - foot descent - ship). Now the gorge is closed for reconstruction. Descent through it is impossible.