The name of the beach has always been linked to "La Barra" (The Bar), a sedimentary rock of sandstone and calcareous depositions that runs parallel to the shore, providing shelter from the north swell and giving it a personality of its own.

Las Canteras extends on the western side of the isthmus of Guanarteme, once a tongue of dunes and sands that joined the mountains of the peninsula of La Isleta, located to the northeast, with the rest of the island of Gran Canaria.

It is oriented to the northwest, in what is known as the arch or bay of El Confital, and extends from the foothills of La Isleta to just before the mouth of the ravine of Tamaraceite, for just over three long kilometers of fine golden sand.

On this bar, when it is emerged at low tide or at dawn, you can find a varied and rich ornithological fauna, being frequent to observe a fairly large community of seagulls on it.

La Puntilla is the final end of the beach and also the area where the greatest amount of sand is accumulating,[4] due to the natural dynamics of dragging that exists in Las Canteras and that has been seriously damaged with the urban development of the isthmus.

Until the middle of the 19th century, the dune field remained practically intact, as shown in maps of the time, but the expansion of the city caused its progressive deterioration until it disappeared almost completely.

Finally, the incessant contribution of these materials caused the clogging of the small strait forming the isthmus of Guanarteme that today joins La Isleta, now a peninsula as a tombolo, with the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the rest of the island.

It consists entirely of fine blond sand, found in it small crystals of olivine and pyroxene, as well as an organic component of crushed shells, which is known in the Canary Islands with the name of confite.

Favored by the strength of the Puerto de La Luz, on the dune field, were settling the houses that would end up covering it completely to consolidate the urban neighborhood of Santa Catalina.

The first concrete references to the beach date back to the 15th century, although before that, around the years 1410 and 1460, plans were already published in which La Isleta appeared separated from the island as if the isthmus was overflowed by water most of the time.

The origin of the toponym is due to the extractions that were made in La Barra of sandstone for the filters of the popular canary water batteries or distilleries, a practice that, if it had not been suspended at the time, would have ended up making the reef disappear and with it part of the beach.

That same year, the municipal architect Francisco de la Torre came up with a project in which the beach was framed by a large street, the largest that was planned for the sector, anticipating the idea of the pedestrian promenade that would be built in the future as we know it today.

[8] Within the group of buildings that are preserved we can highlight the Marine Command (Fernando Navarro, 1913) of eclectic elevation and three floors with towers on the corners; the Mesa y López building (Miguel Martín, 1923), a multi-family recreational house, which responds to the models of Central European architecture with a very attractive play of volumes, roofs and visible materials; and the San José clinic (Laureano Arroyo, 1895 and Rafael Masanet, 1928), a home-asylum, hospital and school for workers and their children, which was the initiative of Bartolomé Apolinario.

The paradisiacal climate, a land of spring and eternal flora, the valleys where all the birds sing, the palm tree transplanted from the desert and a radiant sun was enough attraction for the Europeans.

[15] In the 1960s the city received an influx of Swedish tourists, and it was they who set the style and broke the rules of dress on the beach, going not without contradictions from swimsuits that covered much of the body to bikinis and the Top Less.

The city did not have hotels with sufficient capacity and there was no other tourist destination in the whole island; but next to Puerto de La Luz there was an area that would not take long to be discovered: Las Canteras.

Popularly known as La Barra, it is a sedimentary rock of sandstone and calcareous deposits interspersed with conglomerates more than 100,000 years old, which protects a large part of the beach and prevents the tides from dragging and transporting the sand out to sea.

[20] According to the Foundation for the Ethnography and the Development of the Canary Crafts (FEDAC), Autonomous Organism of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, the Marrero wall is located in the section of the "avenue of the Playa de Las Canteras of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the part known as Playa Chica, in its confluence with the end of Dr. Grau Bassas street, in its number 60, as well as the end of Sargento Llagas street".

[22] The desire to harmonize modern constructions with the idiosyncrasy of the beach has resulted in some characteristic murals, painted between December 1993 and April 1994, on some of the dividing walls, in which marine motifs and the blue of the sea predominate.

Tony Gallardo's work inaugurated by the Monarchs of Spain Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía in 1986, located far from the beach, on a promontory next to the north entrance of the city.

It is made entirely of volcanic rock from La Isleta and recalls stories of immense valleys and ravines, which are symbolized in this figure of a woman who, with her open arms, glorifies the Atlantic.

[24] This symbol is waving at the height of the spa on Tomás Miller Street and guarantees quality, safety and professionalism in all the services offered on the beach, in addition to ensuring users and visitors the best possible tourist experience.

The construction of the promenade and the buildings in the area, which intensified from the first decades of the 20th century onwards, hindered the natural passage of the sand and, consequently, caused it to accumulate irremediably in Las Canteras.

The little Neptune grass (Cymodocea nodosa) is a type of marine phanerogam that once formed extensive meadows throughout the Bahía del Confital along with other plants, and covered approximately 75% of the sandy seabed of the beach.

Thus in the waters of the beach can be found different pelagic species, including: sargo, Trachinotus ovatus (the 'palometa' or 'pompano'), parrotfish, ornate wrasse, salemas, canary damsel, and Mauligobius maderensis.

[30][31] Although Las Canteras does not stand out as a nesting site, numerous birds can be found there, which take the opportunity to perch on the sand and rocks in the early hours of dawn, or on La Barra, when it rises at low tide, or at night when human pressure is less.

However, this is not an obstacle for some of these animals to decide to cross the bar and take a stroll through the waters of the beach or play among the bathers, as happened in 1983 when a group of Risso's dolphins loitered for a whole day inside the dock.

[13] This marine ecosystem that surrounds the peninsula of La Isleta and serves as habitat for these mammals, has been declared a Site of Community Importance and is included in the European Union's Natura 2000 Network.

In fact, in those years it was physically separated from the rest of the beach by the installations of the power plant of the Compañía Insular Colonial Electricidad y Riegos (CICER) that interrupted the continuity of the promenade in that area.

Around the 1950s, at the other end of the beach, where the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium stands today, some of the most important fish factories in the Canary Islands were located, where the canning and salting of tuna and sardines were their main manufactures.