Gran Canaria

From: Spain
Category: from a colleague
Date: October 2017

Gran Canaria; whose original name Canaria was due to the Canarii inhabitants, was later given the epithet of "great". It is the third island in size of the Canary Islands, an African archipelago which is part of Spain, with a population of 847,830 (in 2015) that constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago. Located in the Atlantic Ocean about 150 kilometres off the northwestern coast of Africa and about 1,350 km from Europe. With an area of 1,560 km2 and an altitude of 1,956 m at the Pico de las Nieves, Gran Canaria is the third largest island of the archipelago in both area and altitude.