The Canary Islands is an archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean that makes up a Spanish autonomous community with the status of a historical nationality, and is also one of the outermost regions of the European Union, in the space area it is composed of eight islands, five islets, eight Roques and the sea. Politically the archipelago is composed of seven islands with its own administration and an island that is in the process of being managed as a parish.
The seven islands with their own administration are, on the one hand, El Hierro, La Gomera, La Palma and Tenerife, which constitute the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and, on the other hand, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, which constitute the province Las Palmas Island The island in process of being managed as a hamlet is La Graciosa, which, until June 2018, was considered an islet and, from that date, it was considered the eighth inhabited island of the archipelago, after the approval of a motion in the Senate, although it is administratively and will remain attached to the island of Lanzarote. To these eight islands are added, on the one hand, the uninhabited islets of Montaña Clara, Alegranza, Roque del Este and Roque del Oeste, which, together with the island of La Graciosa, form the Chinijo archipelago, and, on the other hand, with the islet of Lobos, all belonging to the province of Las Palmas. Also, the eight islands and five islets are added a series of adjacent roques entities located in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Finally, this autonomous community is completed with the Canary waters, which are a special maritime area of the Autonomous Community and are integrated within the perimeter contour that arises from the union of the most salient extreme points of the islands and islets, being the only autonomous community of Spain that includes the sea as part of its surface. The archipelago is located in northwest Africa, near the coasts of southern Morocco and north of the Sahara, between the coordinates 27º 37 'and 29º 25' north latitude and 13º 20 'and 18º 10' west longitude. The Canary Islands use the Greenwich Mean Time during the boreal winter and during the boreal summer another hour, with an hour difference from the rest of the State. The island of Fuerteventura is about 95 km from the African coast. The distance to the European continental mass is about 940 km - from the islet of Alegranza to the tip of Sagres -. Due to its geographical location, Canarias is the southernmost and western region of the Spanish State.
Historically, the Canary Islands has been considered a bridge between three continents: Africa, America and Europe. The islands, of volcanic origin, settle on the African Plate, like the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, although they are part of the natural region of Macaronesia. This along with the archipelagos of Cape Verde, Azores, Madeira and Salvajes. Canarias is the most extensive and populated archipelago of the Macaronesia region, with a subtropical climate, although it varies locally depending on the altitude and the north or south slope. This climatic variability gives rise to a great biological diversity that, together with the landscape and geological wealth, justifies the existence in the Canary Islands of four national parks and that all the islands have Unesco biosphere reserves, and others have areas declared Heritage of Humanity.