The first surprise came from Spain, which was enduring its worst drought in decades, but archaeologists were overjoyed when they uncovered Spanish Stonehenge, an ancient stone circle concealed in the waters of a dam.
The stone circle, formally known as the Dolmen of Guadalberl, is located in one corner of the Valdecanas Reservoir in the country’s centre, and officials say the reservoir’s water level has dropped to 28% of its capacity.
Hugo Obermayer, a German archaeologist, discovered the stone circle in 1926, but the area was flooded in 1963 as part of Francisco Franco’s agricultural expansion scheme. She has only been seen in full four times since then, according to the UAE website Al Ain.
Hunger stones appeared along the Rhine in Germany. Several of these stones have lately been discovered along the banks of Germany’s most important river.
Some of these stones include dates and the initials of people’s names, and some consider their reappearance as a warning and reminder of the misery people faced during previous droughts. Dates on stones at Worms, south of Frankfurt, Rheindorf, and near Leverkusen include 1947, 1959, 2003, and 2018.
Due to a drought, the Danube, another of Europe’s great rivers, plummeted to one of its lowest levels in almost a century, exposing the hulls of more than 20 German warships damaged during WWII near the Serbian town of Prahovo.
The ships were among hundreds sunk along the Danube by Nazi Germany’s Black Sea Fleet when they retreated in the face of oncoming Soviet forces in 1944, and they continue to obstruct river movement as water levels fall.
In late July, Italy declared a state of emergency in the Po River basin after a World War II bomb weighing 450 kilogrammes was discovered buried in the low levels of the country’s longest river.
Around 3,000 people were evacuated from the northern village of Borgo Virgilio, near Mantua, while military experts detonated the US-made bomb.
In photos, the drying up of rivers reveals treasures that have been hidden for decades.
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