Cuevas de Ajuy (Monumento Natural de Ajuy)

Las Cuevas de Ajuy are part of the Monumento Natural de Ajuy, a protected area located next to the fishing village of Ajuy, north of Pájara, in Fuerteventura. The complex holds the oldest rocks in the Canary archipelago and is designated a national monument and Paisaje Protegido.

Visitors walk through a network of caverns open to the ocean, alongside fossilised dunes, old lime kilns and a dark-sand beach. The rocks, formed from deep-ocean sedimentary substrates, date from the Cretaceous, between 100 and 150 million years old, predating even the formation of the island of Fuerteventura some 30 million years ago.

The setting preserves the character of a small fishing village and lies close to the Barranco de Las Peñitas, through whose historic ravine the conquerors passed some 600 years ago.