Water levels in rivers and lakes have dropped due to weeks of intense drought around the world, exposing long-submerged ships, historical landmarks, and antique statues.
German warships sank during World War II, so-called “hunger stones,” and a prehistoric stone circle known as the “Spanish Stonehenge” have all been discovered as a result of Europe’s worst drought in perhaps 500 years.
Dropping water levels in China have uncovered a submerged island with three 600-year-old Buddhist sculptures on it, while in the US, a drought-stricken lake has revealed the bodies of five people said to have been murdered by the Mafia.
The world is currently experiencing a record-breaking summer of heatwaves and drought, which have caused rivers to drop to extremely low levels.
The drought has made the ominously termed “hunger stones” visible along the River Elbe, which flows from the Czech Republic to Germany and is inscribed with the words “if you see me, then weep.”
Some people view the re-emergence of the boulders, which were chosen to record low water levels, as a warning and a reminder of the struggles endured during previous droughts.
Stones in Worms, south of Frankfurt, and Rheindorf, near Leverkusen, had dates discernible on them, including 1947, 1959, 2003, and 2018.
The drought has also made it possible to see the wrecks of numerous German battleships that were sunk in the Second World War close to Prahovo, a river port in Serbia.
The ships, which still impede river movement during low water levels, were among hundreds that Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet scuttled along the Danube in 1944 as they withdrew from oncoming Soviet forces.
On a section of the Danube near Prahovo in eastern Serbia, more than 20 hulks have been exposed by this year’s drought, which scientists believe is a result of global warming. Many of these hulks still carry tons of ammunition and explosives and provide a threat to commerce.
According to Velimir Trajilovic, a 74-year-old retired man from Prahovo who wrote a book on the German ships, “The German flotilla has left behind a great ecological disaster that threatens us, the residents of Prahovo.”
Where it flows through the Serbian city of Novi Sad, the navigable channel of western Europe’s longest river, a trade and transit artery that passes through ten nations, is typically several hundred yards wide.
But now that it has become a narrow lane due to drought and unusually high temperatures, Serbians are battling to keep it open for ships and freight barges by dredging.
The discovery of a prehistoric stone circle in Spain that has been called the “Spanish Stonehenge” and is often submerged by a dam’s water has thrilled archaeologists.
The stone circle, formally known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal, is presently completely exposed in a corner of the Valdecanas reservoir in the central province of Caceres, where officials claim the water level has fallen to 28% of its maximum level.
Hugo Obermaier, a German archaeologist, found it in 1926, but in 1963, as part of a rural development project under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, the region was submerged. It has only fully appeared four times since then.
A 450 kg World War Two bomb that had been submerged was found in the slow-moving waters of Italy’s longest river in late July, and the country has since declared a state of emergency for the areas near the River Po.
Approximately 3,000 residents of the northern village of Borgo Virgilio, close to Mantua, were evacuated earlier this month as military experts defused and carried out a controlled explosion of the U.S.-made weapon.
The old Nero Bridge’s ruins have also been made visible by the Tiber River amid Rome’s decreasing waters.
To enable Emperor Nero to visit his holdings on the right bank of the river, particularly the villa of his mother Agrippina, the bridge was constructed in the first century.
Not alone in Europe have rivers and lakes been dried out. The Yangtze River’s falling water levels have revealed a submerged island in the city of Chongqing in southwest China.
On the highest point of the Foyeliang island reef, which was initially thought to have been constructed during the Ming and Qing dynasties, three Buddhist statues that are thought to be 600 years old were discovered. A monk is shown in one of the statues sitting on a lotus pedestal.
Due to a drought and a heatwave in China’s southwest, the Yangtze’s water levels have been dropping quickly.
Since July, rainfall in the Yangtze basin has been roughly 45% lower than average, and hot temperatures are expected to last at least another week, according to government estimates.
In 34 counties throughout Chongqing, as many as 66 rivers have dried up, according to state television station CCTV on Friday.
Meanwhile, the US has seen a number of gloomy findings as a result of the drought. Five remains that were allegedly murdered by the Mafia have been discovered below the bottom of Lake Mead in Las Vegas, which is fast draining.
In May, the body of a victim who had been shot in the head, packed into a barrel, and then thrown overboard was discovered. This was a common tactic used by the hitmen who prowled Las Vegas in the 1970s and 1980s.
Another body was discovered a few days after the one in the barrel. In July, a third was uncovered.
This month, the Swim Beach region saw the discovery of two more sets of skeletal remains.
US authorities looking into a probable mob murder that may have occurred decades ago revealed on Thursday that they had uncovered a gun close to the location where the first body was found inside a barrel.
Police in Las Vegas reported that a gun had been found at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area on August 17, 2022, not far from where one of the human remains had been discovered.
However, they cautioned that it was still too early to say whether it was related to the ongoing inquiry.
A police spokesman verified the gun had been recovered close to where the barrel was discovered. The gun was found there by a journalist.
Water resources are under stress as a result of the catastrophic drought that has affected most of the western United States, with reservoirs and lakes dropping to record low levels.
365 meters above sea level, Lake Mead used to be. But it is rapidly decreasing as a result of more than 20 years of drought.
It was almost at its lowest level since the reservoir was constructed in the 1930s on Thursday when it was only at 1,042 feet.
According to scientists, the natural cycle of drought is being exacerbated by human-caused climate change, which is being fuelled by the unrestrained burning of hydrocarbons for energy.