Mirador del Río is a viewpoint situated on an approximately 475 meters high escarpment called Batería del Río in the very north of the Canarian island

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

 of Lanzarote

Lanzarote

Lanzarote , a Spanish island, is the easternmost of the autonomous Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 125 km off the coast of Africa and 1,000 km from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering 845.9 km2, it stands as the fourth largest of the islands...

.

The location was created in 1974 by the local artist César Manrique

César Manrique

César Manrique was an artist and an architect.-Biography:Manrique grew up in the area of San Ginés lagoon. At age 23, he participated in his first exhibition in Arrecife. He attended the University of La Laguna. In 1945, Manrique attended the art school San Fernando in Madrid for five years...

 in his typical style, consisting of a balustraded cafe, a souvenir shop and a platform on its top which are integrated in the lava

Lava

Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...

 rock.

Mirador der Río provides a stunning view over the strait

Strait

A strait or straits is a narrow, typically navigable channel of water that connects two larger, navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not...

 of "Río" (naming the viewpoint) towards the archaic island of La Graciosa.

From here guards watched for secretly landing ships in former times. Its interiors and balcony areas were used as a location for the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television programme Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

s serial, Planet of Fire

Planet of Fire

Planet of Fire is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 23 February to 2 March 1984...

, representing an alien planet and culture.