The "Jardín de Cactus", situated in the village Guatiza in the north of Lanzarote - was the last art work of César Manrique. He designed this garden in the year 1970 as a symbol of the island's history where we can see now more than 1,500 different cactus plants in the setting of a converted quarry, which has the form of an amphitheatre. César Manrique finally had finished this project together with the island government in the year 1990. (Location see map at the bottom)

The Jardín de Cactus is found on the outskirts of Guatiza, on the old road to Mala. It is this area where during more than a century the cochineal beetle has been cultivated - an insect which lives in the cactus and whose larva are used to produce the valuable natural colorant, cochineal. The cactus garden itself is surrounded by fields of cactus fields.

From the road, one can easily recognise the entrance to the cactus garden, as there rises up an 8 metre iron sculpture of a cactus - made by the artist César Manrique to show people where to go.

In this Lanzarote tourist centre, an abandoned 'rofe' (volcanic ash) quarry in the shape of an amphitheatre has been used, in whose terraces we can admire today more than 1,500 different kinds of cactus plants from the Canary Islands and other countries and continents. In the centre of this garden landscape there is a small pond with some plants growing in the water and a small cave in the volcanic rocks as well.

Some stone monoliths, which have already been there but now by C.M. are uncovered of the earth and the lava ash and very exposed between the cactus plants - give the garden a very bizarre character.