Early images.

Thanks to English astronomer Charles Piazzi Smith, who in 1856 took nearly 80 photographs throughout Tenerife, but especially in the beautiful valley of La Orotrava, Las Cañadas and El Teide, the incomparable images of La Orotrava’s giant dragon tree have remained for posterity. It is further more impressive than the one in Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife, which is considered to be the biggest one of all.

Fate deemed that such an impressive dragon tree would be brought down by the horrendous force of a hurricane nearly 11 years after Smith’s snapshots had been taken together with his wife Jesse, who helped him in the developing process. By the way, there is an additional interest in these images as they are the oldest ones preserved in the whole of the Canary Islands. Those pictures have achieved well-deserved fame in the history of world photography.