Reuters, Aug. 20 (BNA): Weeks of drought across Europe has seen water levels in rivers and lakes drop to levels many don’t remember, exposing long-drenched treasures – and some unwanted dangers, Reuters reports.
In Spain, which suffered its worst drought in decades, archaeologists were delighted with the appearance of a prehistoric stone circle dubbed the “Spanish Stonehenge” that was usually covered by the waters of a dam.
Officially known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal, the stone circle is currently completely exposed in one corner of the Valdecanas Reservoir, in the central province of Cáceres, where authorities say the water level has fallen to 28% of capacity.
It was discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermayer in 1926, but the area was submerged in 1963 in a rural development project under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Since then it has only been fully visible four times.
Memories of past droughts in Germany have also been revived by the re-emergence of the so-called “hunger stones” along the Rhine. Several of these stones have appeared along the banks of Germany’s largest river in recent weeks.
Some bear the dates and initials of their name, and some view their reappearance as a warning and reminder of the hardships people faced during previous droughts. The dates visible on the stones seen in Worms, south of Frankfurt, and Rheindorf, near Leverkusen, included 1947, 1959, 2003 and 2018.
The Danube, one of Europe’s other great rivers, has fallen to one of its lowest levels in nearly a century as a result of a drought, revealing the hulls of more than 20 German warships sunk during World War II near the Serbian port of Prahovo.
The ships were among the hundreds sunk by Nazi Germany’s Black Sea Fleet along the Danube in 1944 as they withdrew from advancing Soviet forces, and they continue to impede river traffic as water levels drop.
Italy declared a state of emergency in the areas around the Po River, and in late July a World War II bomb weighing 450 kg (1,000 lb) was discovered submerged 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 neutralized and implemented the US-made device earlier this month.
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