Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are a volcanic archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, located off the northwest coast of Africa. In the narrative of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, they function not as a destination visited by the Nautilus but as a crucial geographical and thematic reference point, linked to the discovery of the submerged continent of Atlantis and to the history of polar exploration.

Geographical and Geological Context

The Canary Islands are identified as the highest peaks of the sunken continent of Atlantis, which, according to the narrative, was obliterated in a single day and night by a cataclysm. Professor Aronnax, standing on the summit of an underwater volcano that is part of the Atlantean mountain range, reflects that the highest peaks of Atlantis—including Madeira, the Azores, the Canaries, and the Cape Verde Islands—still emerge above the waves. This geological framing positions the archipelago as a surviving remnant of a lost world, a visible marker of a vast, submerged history.

Narrative Significance: The Atlantis Connection

The Canary Islands are invoked during the Nautilus's exploration of the Atlantis seafloor. As the submersible navigates the underwater plains and volcanic peaks of the lost continent, the narrative explicitly connects the visible archipelago to the submerged ruins. The islands are presented as the only remaining evidence above the waterline of the immense continent that Plato described, a land that once existed outside Europe, Asia, and Libya, beyond the Pillars of Hercules. This connection transforms the Canary Islands from a mere geographical location into a symbol of a forgotten, antediluvian world, reinforcing the novel's themes of hidden history and the power of the sea to conceal and preserve.

Contextual Role in Exploration History

The Canary Islands also appear in the narrative as a point of reference in Captain Nemo's recitation of the history of Antarctic exploration. When claiming the South Pole for himself, Nemo lists the achievements of previous navigators, noting that in 1600, the Dutchman Gheritk was swept by storms and currents, reaching latitude 64° south and discovering the South Shetland Islands. This list of explorers and their farthest points south serves to contextualize Nemo's own achievement, and the Canary Islands, while not directly part of that polar history, are part of the broader geographical knowledge that frames the voyage. The islands are thus a fixed point in the known world, against which the unknown, extreme regions of the planet are measured.

Thematic Significance: Memory and the Lost World

The Canary Islands, as the visible remnants of Atlantis, embody the novel's preoccupation with cultural and geological memory. The sea, in Verne's vision, is a vast archive that preserves the ruins of past civilizations. The islands are the tangible, above-water evidence of a catastrophe that the narrative explores in detail underwater. They serve as a reminder that the ocean's surface hides a complex, layered history, and that the visible world is only a small part of a much larger, submerged reality. This theme is reinforced by other instances of preserved memory in the book, such as the coral cemetery where Nemo's crewman is buried, the sunken wreck of the Avenger, and the manuscript that Nemo prepares to entrust to the sea. The Canary Islands, as the peaks of Atlantis, are a permanent, natural monument to this idea of a world lost beneath the waves.