"Hierro" redirects here. For the former Spanish footballer, see Fernando Hierro. Fernando Ruiz Hierro (born March 23rd 1968 in Vélez-Málaga) is a former Spanish football (soccer) player. ...

El Hierro's western end was for long time considered the end of the known world by the Europeans.

El Hierro, nicknamed Isla del Meridiano (the "Meridian Island"), is a Spanish island. It is the smallest and furthest south and west of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is situated at 27°45' north, 18°00' west. Download high resolution version (1536x1024, 650 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1536x1024, 650 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife Official language(s) Spanish Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 13th  7,447 km²  1. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ...

History

The name of the island is derived from the Guanche language toponym Hero, which by the process of folk-etymology was transformed into "Hierro," meaning "iron" in Spanish, due to its similarity to that word. Thus, Ferro (Latin ferrum, "iron") was and is used as an alternative name for the island. It is the name for the island in other languages, including French, German, and Danish. Pliny the Elder, who used Juba II as his source, names a series of Canary Islands, and it is believed that his Capraria may have been Hierro. Guanche is an extinct language of Spain, especially the Canary Islands. ... Toponymy is the taxonomic study of toponyms (place-names), their origins and their meanings. ... Folk etymology or popular etymology is a linguistic term for a category of false etymology which has grown up in popular lore, as opposed to one which arose in scholarly usage. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19c portrait. ... Juba II Juba II (Iuba in Latin; Ιóβας (Ιóβα) or Ιουβας in Greek)[1] or Juba II of Numidia (52-50 BC - 23 AD) was a king of Numidia and then later moved to Mauretania. ...

The ancient natives of the island, called bimbaches, were conquered by Jean de Béthencourt –more through the process of negotiation than by military action. Béthencourt had as his ally and negotiator Augeron, brother of the island's native monarch. Augeron had been captured years previously by the Europeans and now served as mediator between the Europeans and the Guanches. In return for control over the island, Béthencourt promised to respect the liberty of the natives, but he eventually broke his promise, selling many of the bimbaches into slavery. Many Frenchmen and Galicians subsequently settled on the island. There was a revolt of the natives against the harsh treatment of the governor Lázaro Vizcaíno, but it was suppressed. One of ships departing for the 1402 norman expedition (from Le Canarien). Jean de Béthencourt (c. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Galicia (Spain) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Geography

Like the rest of the chain, the island is sharply mountainous. It has an area of 278 km². To help compare different orders of magnitude and geographical regions, we list here areas between 100 km² and 1000 km². See also areas of other orders of magnitude. ...

The highest point is situated in the middle of the island, in Malpaso, 1501 meters high.

Like all the Canary Islands, El Hierro is a tourist destination. It is served by a small airport at Valverde and a ferry terminal, both of which connect to Tenerife. Flag of Tenerife Tenerife, a Spanish island, is the largest of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. ...

Flora and fauna

El Hierro is home to many unique species, such as the El Hierro Giant Lizard (Gallotia simonyi). For more information on the flora and vegetation of the island see www.hierro-flora.de. Binomial name Gallotia simonyi (Steindachner, 1889) Synonyms Gallotia goliath Gallotia maxima The El Hierro Giant Lizard Gallotia simonyi (or Hierro Giant Lizard; in Spanish, Lagarto Gigante de El Hierro) is a species that can be found on the island of El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands (Spain). ...

Political organization

The island is part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It includes 2 municipalities: In addition to its seventeen autonomous communities, Spain is divided into fifty provinces. ... Santa Cruz de Tenerife province Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a province of Spain, consisting of the western part of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands. ...

• Frontera
• Valverde

Valverde is situated in the northeast and Frontera in the southwest, both contain several villages. Frontera is a municipalitie of El Hierro, in Canary Islands, Spain. ... Valverde is a municipalitie of El Hierro, in Canary Islands, Spain. ... Valverde (Spanish meaning green valley) is a municipality in the Canary Islands in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. ... Valverde (Spanish meaning green valley) is a municipality in the Canary Islands in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. ...

The seat of the island government (cabildo insular) is in Valverde town. 10162 people lived on the island in 2003.

The "Meridian Island"

Part of map of Upper Silesia (1746) with Latin message: Longitudines numeratæ à primo Meridiano per Insula Ferri

The island was known in European history as the prime meridian in common use outside of the future British Empire. Already in the 2nd century A.D., Ptolemy considered a definition of the zero meridian based on the western-most position of the world, giving maps with only positive (eastern) longitudes. In the year 1634, France ruled by Louis XIII and Richelieu decided that Ferro's meridian should be used as the reference on maps, since this island is the most western position of the Old World and also thought to be exactly 20 degrees west of the Paris meridian, so indeed the exact position of Ferro was never considered. Old maps (outside of Anglo-America) often have a common grid with Paris degrees at the top and Ferro degrees offset by 20 at the bottom. Louis Feuillée also worked on this problem in 1724. Image File history File links Map_of_1746. ... Image File history File links Map_of_1746. ... Map of Upper Silesia, 1746 Upper Silesia (Polish: Górny ÅšlÄ…sk, German: Oberschlesien, Czech: Horní Slezsko) is the south-eastern part of Silesia, a historical and geographical region of Poland (Opole Voivodship and Silesian Voivodship) and of the Czech Republic (Silesian-Moravian Region). ... // Events Catharine de Ricci (born 1522) canonized. ... Location of the Prime Meridian Prime Meridian in Greenwich The Prime Meridian, also known as the International Meridian or Greenwich Meridian, is the meridian (line of longitude) passing through the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Greenwich, England — it is the meridian at which longitude is 0 degrees. ... The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ... The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... A medieval artists rendition of Claudius Ptolemaeus Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: ; c. ... Events Moses Amyrauts Traite de la predestination is published Curaçao captured by the Dutch Treaty of Polianovska First meeting of the Académie française The witchcraft affair at Loudun Jean Nicolet lands at Green Bay, Wisconsin Opening of Covent Garden Market in London English establish a settlement... Louis XIII (September 27, 1601 – May 14, 1643), called the Just (French: le Juste), was King of France from 1610 to 1643. ... For other uses of Richelieu, see Richelieu (disambiguation). ... The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans before the voyages of Christopher Columbus; it includes Europe, Asia, and Africa (collectively known as Africa-Eurasia), plus surrounding islands. ... Meridian Room (or Cassini Room) at the Paris Observatory. ... Louis Éconches Feuillée (sometimes spelled Feuillet) (1660-1732) was a French member of the Order of the Minims, explorer, astronomer, geographer, and botanist. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ...

It was later found that the actual island of El Hierro itself is in fact 20° 23' 9" west of Paris, but the Ferro meridian was still defined as 20 degrees west of Paris.

According to the European longitude adjustment of Theodor Albrecht (ca. 1890) the Ferro meridian is 17° 39' 46" west of the Greenwich meridian. But for the geodetic networks of Austria-Hungary and of Germany the value 17° 40' 00" was adopted in the 1920s, due to a vertical deflection of 13-14" at the fundamental points near Vienna and Berlin. World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... The 1920s was a decade sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ... The vertical deflections (deflections of the plumb line, astro-geodetic deflections) are important parameters of the local gravity field. ... Inhabitants according to official census figures: 1800 to 2005 Vienna in 1858 Vienna (German: Wien ) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ...

El Hierro in literature

• The island of Hierro is mentioned in Umberto Eco's novel "The Island of the Day Before" ("L'isola del giorno prima", 1994), a novel about a 17th century Italian nobleman trapped on an island on the International Date Line.

Photo of Umberto Eco by Robert Birnbaum Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose and his many essays. ... The Island of the Day Before is a novel by Umberto Eco. ... The International Date Line around 180° This article is about the line dividing time zones; see Dateline (disambiguation) for other meanings, including the television program. ...

See also

• Prime meridian

Location of the Prime Meridian Prime Meridian in Greenwich The Prime Meridian, also known as the International Meridian or Greenwich Meridian, is the meridian (line of longitude) passing through the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Greenwich, England — it is the meridian at which longitude is 0 degrees. ...

External links

• Information on flora and vegetation of El Hierro
• Watch from above El Hierro points of interests and add your preferred ones (map provided by Google)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: El Hierro

Coordinates: 27°44′N 18°03′W Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...