Described by the ancient Greeks and Romans as The Fortunate Isles and at other times as Isles of the Blest, the Canary Islands were, for countless centuries, a mysterious part of the world. Shrouded by an aura of myth and romance, their history became wrapped in fiction and legends. The ancients presumed them to be vestiges of the lost world of Atlantis. It was believed that when this legendary civilization sank into the Atlantic Ocean it left behind the Canaries, an archipelago of seven large and a number of smaller islands.

But there is also a legend that speaks of an eighth island that emerges and disappears near El Hierro and can be seen through the blanket of clouds in Tenerife, La Palma, El Hierro and La Gomera. Medieval cartographers featured it as part of the archipelago in their maps, and its was even believed that it had broken off from the American continent in the past. The origin of this phantom island came from a maritime expedition led by the Irish in the year 516. He recounted that he had reached an exuberant island of black sand where the sun never set and the trees produced abundant fruit. It was long believed that the island was Paradise.