The Cactus Garden is located in Guatiza village on Lanzarote's north east coast in an abandoned stone quarry. Cesar Manrique had selected this particular site for the garden because the area is the centre of the Island's cochineal crop.

This beetle settles on the 'tunera' strain of cactus in the surrounding fields, from which it is collected for the crimson dye it contains. This, the seventh and last Tourist Centre Cesar Manrique created for Lanzarote, contains over 10,000 cacti of more than 1,100 different varieties.

It is, in a certain sense, the optimum Manrique creation. All the other attractions he designed already existed in some form before he embellished them. But the Jardin de Cactus stands on 5,000 m2 of ground which had been wasteland for over 150 years.

It is possible that Manrique was demonstrating once again the characteristics of his beloved Lanzarote. That the Isle of Volcanoes, known for its scant rainfall and desolate landscape, was capable of housing this beautiful garden of unique plant life. As he had shown twenty years previously, that a desolate and barren sea of lava could provide the setting for one of the world's most beautiful and unique homes.