The Guanches of the Canary Islands Off the coast of West Africa lie the Canary Islands - this

region became home to a mysterious group of Nordics in antiquity who became known as the Guanches. While it is unknown for sure how they arrived on the islands, what is known is t hat they shared a number of cultural characteristics with the ancient Egyptians and that their building style appears to have been replicated in South and Centr al America. Like the Celtic Tocharians, the finest evidence of what these original Gaunche N ordics looked like, is in the fortuitous existence of original Guanche mummies, which are on public display in that island group's national museum. The corpses on display are estimated to be between 600 and 1000 years old.

Two Guanche mummies, with red hair and other Nordic features - the original inha bitants of the Canary islands. It is unknown at what date they settled the islan ds, but show cultural similarities with the Ancient Egyptians. An examination of one of the mummies' bodies showed incisions that virtually mat ched those found in Egyptian mummies, although the string used by the Guanche em balmers to close the wounds was much coarser than would have been used by the Eg yptian experts. The Guanches also possessed the art of writing, although this has not yet been t he subject of any major study. THE GAUNCHE PYRAMIDS However, the most stunning link between the Guanches and the Egyptians comes in the form of pyramids - the Guanches built several small step pyramids on the isl ands, using exactly the same model as those found in ancient Egypt and in Mesopo tamia. The pyramids have an east-west alignment which also indicates that they p robably had a religious purpose, associated with the rise and setting of the sun . Carefully built stairways on the west side of each pyramid lead up to the summit , which in each case has a flat platform covered with gravel, possibly used for religious or ceremonial purposes.

Left: One of the Pyramids of Guimar, Canary Islands. Right: A Mayan pyramid in C entral America (Chichen Itza). The resemblance is unmistakable. There is strong evidence to suggest that Whites used the Canary Island current to cross the Atla ntic Ocean and influence the Central and Southern American civilizations in preColumbian times. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GAUNCHE PYRAMIDS The famous explorer, Thor Heyerdahl, who "rediscovered" the pyramids on the Cana ry Islands and who set up an academic body to study the phenomena, argued that t he pyramids may be remains from explorers who sailed the Atlantic in ancient tim es, and who may have possibly forged a link with the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas. As the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands were fair-haired and bearded, it was possible, Heyerdahl suggested, that long before the 15th Century, people

of the same stock as those who settled the Canary Islands, also sailed the same route along the Canary Current that took Christopher Columbus to the Americas. This theory formed the basis of Heyerdahl's famous "RA" expeditions in which he showed that is was possible to cross the Atlantic in an Egyptian reed boat. In fact Columbus' starting off point was the Canary Islands, where he obtained s upplies and water on Gomera, the island next to Tenerife. The Guanches on Teneri fe in 1492 did not permit Columbus to land on their island - they were not impre ssed by the physical appearance of the bearded Europeans, who looked like the Gu anches themselves. When Columbus and the Europeans who followed in his wake landed in the Americas, they were welcomed and initially worshipped as gods, since the beardless Indian s they encountered believed that the Spanish belonged to the same people as the legendary founders of their civilization, bearded men from across the Atlantic O cean. According to the Aztec and Olmec (Central American Amerind) legends, their god, Quetzalcoatl, had Nordic features (eyes and hair color) and a beard. This god ca me from over the sea and taught the Amerinds how to raise corn and build structu res. There is indeed a marked similarity between the step pyramids to be found on the Canary Islands and those to be found in Central and South America, strongly sug gesting yet another great lost White migration, this time to Central and South A merica, perhaps a thousand years or more before Columbus.

The position of the Canary Islands and the route of the Canaries Current to and from the Americas. The existence of the red haired Gaunches on the Canary Island s, combined with the red haired pre-Columbus mummies found in South America and the marked similarity in pyramid building styles, indicate that Whites probably used the Canaries Current to cross the Atlantic, most likely between 2000 and 50 0 BC. Columbus himself used the Canaries Current, setting out from the Canary Is lands on his first crossing of the Atlantic in 1492 AD.