What changes for holidaymakers and residents?
Nothing changes for visitors so far. No new entry prices, closures or conduct rules are known, and we could not find a statement on the award from the Cabildo de Lanzarote (island government) by Friday.
The IUGS awards a scientific label, not a ticket and not Unesco World Heritage status. Only the geopark around the tunnel carries the Unesco name, and our research found no legal protection created by the IUGS list, though we found no legal source on the point.
To see the lava tube, visit the Cueva de los Verdes or the Jameos del Agua. According to the geopark, César Manrique and Jesús Soto designed both sites, and the Cabildo's Centros de Arte, Cultura y Turismo department runs them.
We could not confirm opening hours or prices. Anyone planning a trip should check with the operator first.
The Túnel de la Atlántida itself lies under water and is not a place for walkers. We found no access rules for diving, so ask the geopark or the Cabildo before planning any dive.
Where is the tunnel and how big is it?
The Atlántida Tunnel lies in the north of Lanzarote, in the municipality of Haría. It forms the submerged part of the lava tube of the La Corona volcano.
The tube sits within the Monumento Natural de La Corona (protected natural monument). That includes the 600-metre cone of La Corona, as the broadcaster RTVC reported.
The whole system has three parts: the Cueva de los Verdes, the Jameos del Agua and the Túnel de la Atlántida. Jameos are collapsed sections of roof that, according to the geopark, open natural entrances to the tube.
Sources differ on length. The award announcement gives around ten kilometres for the system, while the geopark's page says more than 7.6 kilometres, the last 1.6 kilometres of them below sea level.
For the Atlántida section, the announcement gives around two kilometres and a depth of up to 64 metres. We could not independently verify the title “longest known submarine lava tunnel in the world”.
The geopark describes stacked halls and galleries with domes up to 20 by 20 metres and small lagoons. On age it says about 25,000 years, while the award announcement says 26,000 to 21,000 years.
Why did the IUGS pick the tunnel?
The IUGS added the system to its third selection of 100 sites on 6 November 2026. The handover took place in Monchique in Portugal.
Javier Lario Gómez, professor of external geodynamics at the distance university UNED, proposed the site. He coordinated a decade of research, mainly on the underwater section.
The tunnel formed on land because sea level was then about 120 metres lower. The rising sea later flooded the lower parts bit by bit.
Carbonates and sulphates inside record these stages. Uranium/thorium and radiocarbon dating give an archive from the end of the Pleistocene into the Holocene.
The ProyectoSublántida dive team returned to the end wall at 64 metres for the first time in over three decades and took samples. The results appear in a monograph on the tunnel's geomorphology and sedimentology and in a new scientific paper.
What lives in the tunnel and what has the Moon to do with it?
The flooding created an anchialine environment, meaning underground water connected to the sea. The nomination lists more than 37 endemic species there, among them the well-known jameíto (Munidopsis polymorpha).
Lava tubes also serve as models for possible cavities on the Moon and Mars. For that reason, according to the announcement, Lanzarote has already hosted research and training linked to ESA and NASA.
Recent research on the system ran through projects funded in state tenders. UNED's own research funds and cooperation with the geopark added to that.
Does the find have anything to do with Tenerife?
No, the Atlántida Tunnel is on Lanzarote, not Tenerife. The Cueva del Viento in Icod de los Vinos is a different system, formed about 27,000 years ago on the lava flanks of Pico Viejo.
We found no evidence of an IUGS nomination for a tube on Tenerife. Teide National Park, by contrast, is already on the Unesco World Heritage list.
What remains open and what comes next?
Only the UNED statement reports the ceremony in Monchique and its date. We found no official IUGS list and no statement from the Cabildo or the geopark by Friday.
There are also no details on funding, signage or protection measures. Lario says only that the listing strengthens the case to “keep researching, preserving and communicating” the system.
As early as February 2025, the tunnel was on the shortlist of the IUGS heritage commission, according to the Cabildo. Council member Samuel Martín said then that the commission was founded in 2016 and had named 200 sites by that point.
The geopark then expected new cooperation programmes for protection. Whether and when they will come has not been published.