It is pity that every visitor cannot be made to visit this museum. It is fascinating for both what it says, what it does not say and what it misleads. What is does do is give an intriguing understanding of why the Canaries are like they are today. In most places, the islands are moonscapes as soon as you are more than 200 metres from the shore, packed with tourist hotels less than 200 metres from the shore.

It is worth starting with a quote. Pliny, an eminent Roman citizen, visited the islands 2,000 years ago and wrote, “they all have an abundant supply of fruit and of birds of every kind, Canaria also abounds in palm-groves bearing dates and in conifers; that in addition to this there is a large supply of honey, and also papyrus grows in the rivers, and sheat-fish [a type of cat fish]”. (Translation by H. Rackham, first published 1942). So how did these lush tropical islands become a complete desert or moonscape?

The invasion of the Canary Islands in the 15th century was driven by greed, mainly in the form of slaves and wood. Then, the islands were covered in the coveted Canary wood, (also known as Centrolobium) which is a type of hardwood that is now native to South America. The colonialists ruthlessly cut down all the Canary wood as well as most other types, transporting it all to Spain for ship building. Hence the moonscape-type islands we see today were created by the Spanish colonialists. (The Canary government, in fairness to them, are trying to replant the islands but it is a massive job.)

Most experts agree that the Guanches arrived in the Canary Islands from Africa in the first or second century BC. These first inhabitants of Tenerife and the other Canary Islands lived in caves, which probably offered excellent accommodation as caves are cool in summer and warm in the winter. The Guanches also had knowledge about geometric symbolism and carried out the embalming and mummification of their dead, as well as drilling the skulls of the living. What they were not is aborigines as the museum keeps referring to them. Neither were they desert dwellers as the museum portrays them.

But then another motive of Spanish colonialism was to spread Catholicism. The virtual genocide of the Guanches during the invasion by the Spaniards is, by implication, portrayed by the museum - looks at the thousands of skulls. Perhaps it is time for the museum to introduce a more balanced view of Canarian history, as opposed to the version of the Spanish colonialists currently, in large part, portrayed. Go to the museum and make your own mind up!