Aguaite Caves

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Archaeological sites

Aguaite, Gaite or Araguaite are the different documented names of the place where the last mencey of Anaga had a temporary residence, located in the upper part of what is today the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The area, which has caves that could indeed have been used by the aborigines, is located next to the Monte de las Mesas, very close to the hamlet of Los Campitos, on a small hill from which the Ancheta and San Francisco ravines emerge.  

After the conquest, these lands belonged to the colonisers Miguel Perdomo and Mencía de Cabrera, whose heirs sold them for 150 reales to Cristóbal de Aroche on 14 December 1603, before the public notary Francisco Sánchez Zambrana. The property transfer document, recorded by the researcher Leopoldo de la Rosa Olivera, refers to the place as: “ Some caves of Araguayte, which were dwellings of the king of Anaga, which are in the mesas of Jiménez, bordering on one side with the valley of Areheta [ Ancheta ] and on the other side with a small ravine that goes from said mesas and above a wall [ paper torn ] of the same mesas ”.

The area was undoubtedly a strategic place. It must have had abundant water as it is situated between the sources and courses of two ravines; besides, it was a natural watchtower from where even today wide views over the slopes of the southern flank of the Anaga massif can be seen.

28.482085, -16.263044