An unprecedented drought across Europe has revealed hidden treasures and dangers across the continent.
Weeks of hot weather and a lack of rain have seen water levels in rivers and lakes drop to levels few can remember.
This has exposed objects long submerged in the riverbed, including a prehistoric stone circle called the ‘Spanish Stonehenge’.
In Spain, which is suffering from its worst drought in decades, archaeologists have been excited by the find, which is usually covered by the waters of a dam.
Officially known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal, the stone circle is currently fully exposed in a corner of the Valdecanas reservoir, in the central province of Caceres.
Authorities in the region, less than 200km west of Madrid, say water levels have dropped to 28% of capacity.
It was discovered in 1926 by the German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier, but was flooded in 1963 in a rural development project under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and has only been fully visible four times since then.
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The ‘Spanish Stonehenge’ was first discovered in 1926 (Image: Reuters)
In Germany, “hunger stones” have become visible along the Rhine River.
Memories of past droughts have been rekindled in Germany as they reappeared on the country’s longest river, complete with dates and people’s initials.
Their reappearance is seen by some as a warning and a reminder of the hardships people faced during previous droughts.
Dates visible on stones in Worms, south of Frankfurt, and Rheindorf, near Leverkusen, included 1947, 1959, 2003 and 2018.
The Danube has also dropped to one of its lowest levels in nearly a century as a result of the drought, exposing more than 20 German warships sunk during World War II near the port city of Prahovo, Serbia.
A World War II bomb was removed from the River Pa in Borgo Virgilio, Italy, earlier this month (Image: Reuters) A ‘hunger stone’ from 1947 in Worms, Germany (Image: Reuters) This wreck was seen in Prahovo, Serbia (Image: Reuters) Wreck of a German World War II warship in the Danube (Image: Reuters)
This is the Loire, the longest river in France. Now he’s gone. It evaporated. This has not happened in at least 2000 years, and probably not at any time in recorded human history. pic.twitter.com/oqbKwBuzC5
— DCPetterson (@dcpetterson) August 19, 2022
The ships were among hundreds sent upriver by Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet in 1944 as they retreated from advancing Soviet forces.
Today they still block river traffic at low water levels.
Italy declared a state of emergency for the areas around the Po River, and in late July a 450-kilogram (1,000-pound) World War II bomb was discovered in the shallow 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 while military experts defused and detonated the US-made device earlier this month.
New lows have also been seen in France’s Loire River, revealing a striking dry valley landscape.
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