Gran Canaria is rounded with an appendix in the extreme north east, the peninsula of La Isleta, the panoramic backdrop of the capital of the island, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

In the times before the construction of Puerto de La Luz, opened in 1883, one of the most important in Spain, this was only a peninsula at low tide.When the sandy isthmus stretch emerged, not more than 200 metres wide, the high tide covered it, from here the name "isleta", little island, given by the islanders to its 12 square kms upon which silhouettes of the mountains can be appreciated. To the east of the isthmus, the installations and the bustle of the port, to the west, the cooing hubbub of Playa de las Canteras; in the middle, the urbanization of the city that drastically separates the environment from one side to the other. In Las Canteras, the docks cannot be seen and these know nothing about the beach.

Gran Canaria is 1,532 sq. kms long, which combined with its circular shape and the location of its maximum height (Pico de la Nieves, 2,000 m) in its geographic centre, it has the outline of a gigantic very erosioned conical mountain, with various craters or extinguished cauldrons and deep ravines situated radially from the summit to the sea. From the northeast to the southeast, the central mountain chain delimiting two large zones, different in climate and landscape, that the canarians call, generically, North and South.

Each of the zones offers, at the same time, an affinity of microclimates and an enormous variety of landscapes, one of the main attractions of Gran Canaria. In only one day, with mild temperatures, the twelve months of the year, it is possible to go from a warm coast to mild middle areas, crossing valleys and subtropical forests or reach the summit where it occasionally snows without affecting the coastal sun. Gran Canaria, has been nicknamed "miniture continent", due to its great variety, caused by the trade winds that come from the north and blow against the "wall"of the central mountain chain, provoking a dampness and a pluviometre superior to those registered in the south zone, sheltered from the winds by the mountains.The cold sea winds are other conditioning factors to the benign gran canarian climate. It can be said, in short, that the exceptional peculiarities in this latitude on the island, several kilometres from the severe Sahara desert, are due to the trade winds, sea currents and the orography.

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