The Guanches - The White Indians of Nivaria is a new book about these people of Tenerife

American author Gordon Kennedy has just published a ground-breaking book about the Guanches of Tenerife and the Canary Islands. Entitled The White Indians of Nivaria, this work is unlike any of the other books available on this fascinating subject.

Kennedy takes the view that the Guanches, who were the inhabitants of the Canary Islands before the Spanish conquest, had boats and that they built many pyramids on the islands. Academics and the current crop of books about the Guanches make no mention of these pyramids and they state that these people had no boat-building abilities.

The Guanches are often portrayed as a primitive cave-dwelling Stone-age race of people but Kennedy explains that because they lived on volcanic islands they had no access to metal ores and were forced to live as they did. Yes, they used caves and dressed only in goat-skins and palm leaves but they were able to use boats for fishing and to get from one island to another.

The author is convinced that the Guanches did build the pyramids, which the academics have claimed are nothing more than piles of stones and agricultural terraces made by farmers. The late Thor Heyerdahl, famous for his travels as a world explorer and his Kon-Tiki raft, did not agree with this opinion and had stated that the Pyramids of Güímar were like the stepped pyramids he had seen in other parts of the world.

The pyramids have clearly been designed and worked on to create alignments and with regard to them being geometrical constructions. They are a far cry from a heap of rocks which would not have straight sides or stepped levels.

In his book, Kennedy, gives many direct quotations from the Spanish chroniclers as well as from other literary and historical sources that describe the Guanches and Tenerife as it once was.

The White Indians of Nivaria is illustrated throughout with many coloured photos showing views of Tenerife and the Canary Islands, pyramids, Guanche symbols, pottery and other archaeological remains of their culture. It also looks in some depth at Guanche names and the language of these people.

Another link with Egypt and other pyramid-buidling cultures around the world, is that the Guanches mummified their dead. The mummies were left in caves in ravines of the island. This is examined along with what is known about their culture and crafts such as pottery-making.

The White Indians of Nivaria by Gordon Kennedy is the result of many years of research on the subject of the Guanches and is highly recommended as a reference book about these mysterious people. The author has a large collection of photos and texts he has collected in researching these fascinating people and their culture and he has dipped into this to illustrate his work and to provide evidence for what he says.