Lanzarote The island is also home to one of two surviving populations of the threatened Canarian Egyptian vulture. The official natural symbols associated with Lanzarote are "Munidopsis polymorpha" (Blind crab) and "Euphorbia balsamifera" (Tabaiba dulce). Lanzarote is believed to have been the first Canary Island to be settled. The Phoenicians may have visited or settled there, though no material evidence survives. The first known record came from Roman author Pliny the Elder in the encyclopaedia "Naturalis Historia" on an expedition to the Canary Islands. The names of the islands (then called "Insulae Fortunatae" or the "Fortunate Isles") were recorded as "Junonia"
Lanzarote support of the King of Castile) came and fought the local Guanches, who were further decimated. The islands of Fuerteventura and El Hierro were later similarly conquered. In 1477, a decision by the royal council of Castile confirmed a grant of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, with the smaller islands of Ferro and Gomera to the Castilian nobles Herrera, who held their fief until the end of the 18th century. In 1585, the Ottoman admiral Murat Reis temporarily seized Lanzarote. In the 17th century, pirates raided the island and took 1,000 inhabitants into slavery in Cueva de los Verdes. From 1730 to