Weeks of drought across Europe pushed water levels in rivers and lakes to levels few could remember, exposing long-hidden underwater treasures – and some unwelcome dangers.
In Spain, which is suffering its worst drought in decades, archaeologists have been delighted by the emergence of a circle of prehistoric stones dubbed the “Spanish Stonehenge”, usually covered by the waters of a dam.
Officially known as the Guadalperal Dolmen, the stone circle is now fully exposed in a corner of the Valdecanas reservoir in the central province of Cáceres, where officials say the water level has dropped to 28% of capacity.
It was discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926, but the area was flooded in 1963 in a rural development project under the Francisco Franco dictatorship. Since then, it has only become fully visible four times.
Memories of past droughts were also rekindled in Germany by the reappearance of so-called “hunger stones” along the Rhine River. Many of these stones have become visible along the banks of Germany’s longest river in recent weeks.
With dates and people’s initials, its resurgence is seen by some as a warning and reminder of the hardships people faced during previous droughts. Dates visible on stones seen in Worms, south of Frankfurt, and Rheindorf, near Leverkusen, included 1947, 1959, 2003, and 2018.
Another of Europe’s mighty rivers, the Danube, has fallen to one of its lowest levels in nearly a century as a result of the drought, exposing the hulls of more than 20 German warships sunk during World War II near the port city of Prahovo. , in Serbia.
The vessels were among hundreds sunk along the Danube by Nazi Germany’s Black Sea Fleet in 1944 when they retreated from advancing Soviet forces, and they still hamper river traffic during low water levels.
Italy declared a state of emergency for areas around the Po River, and in late July, a previously submerged 450kg World War II bomb was discovered in the low waters of the country’s longest river.
About 3,000 people living near the northern village of Borgo Virgilio, near the city of Mantua, were evacuated as military experts disarmed and carried out a controlled explosion of the US-made device earlier this month.
Source: CNN Brasil
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