- Elsa Mischmann
- BBC News
1 hour ago
The so-called “hunger stones” in the Rhine
Europe suffers from weeks of drought, with continuous heat waves leading to deaths and evacuations.
Rivers and lakes have dried up, causing major problems to navigation and other boats. The falling water level also revealed some treasures that were buried under the water.
Among those treasures are the so-called “hunger stones”, which are stones carved at the waterline of rivers during past droughts as a warning to future generations that if these stones appear above the water, hardship awaits us.
Most of these stones appeared on the banks of the Elbe River, which flows from the Czech Republic to Germany.
One of those stones, which was first carved in the 15th century, surfaced in 1616, when locals carved the words “If you see me, cry” on it.
Low water levels in Serbia’s Danube revealed sunken wrecks of World War II ships, still laden with explosives.
The ships found near the town of Prahovo were part of a Nazi fleet that sank in 1944. More of them are expected as the current drought continues.
photo released, Archyde.com
Several German ships sank in Prahovo as the Nazis fled in front of the Soviet forces
Unexploded ordnance was also found in the Po River in Italy.
About 3,000 people were evacuated from a village near Mantua last July, while sappers removed and detonated a previously submerged World War II bomb.
photo released, Archyde.com
The unexploded bomb was pulled from the Po river by the Italian army.
A warship also appeared that was used by the Germans and was sunk in 1943 in the Po River.
The locals had begun to see the barge “Zabello” as the water level fell several months ago, and then revealed a larger part of it as the drought continued.
photo released, Getty Images
The warship “Zebello” is gradually revealed.
The low water level in the Tiber River in the Italian capital, Rome, revealed the traces of an ancient bridge, probably built by Emperor Nero around the year 50 AD.
It was always possible to see a small part of these effects when the water level fell, but now a larger part of the structure of the ancient building can be seen than usual.
The ruins of the old bridge lie under the site of a new bridge, the Vittorio Emanuele II bridge.
photo released, Getty Images
The remains of the bridge built by Nero appeared in the Tiber.
In Spain, traces of very old stone burials, or what we can call “Spanish Stonehenge”, appeared in the “Valdethanas” water basin in the province of “Caceres” in the center of the country.
It is believed that these circles of stones, which are officially called the “burials of Guadalberal”, dated back to 5000 BC.
It was discovered by an archaeologist in 1926, but the area was submerged in a rural development project in 1963.
Since then, she has only appeared four times.
photo released, Archyde.com
Stone monuments (Spanish stoheng) were drowned by officials in the Franco era, but these stone traces reappeared.
In Galicia, on Spain’s border with Portugal, a “ghost village” appeared earlier this year after drought left a basin with water depleted.
The village, called “Atherido”, was flooded in 1992 in order to make way for the construction of the dam’s reservoir.
Some of the former villagers returned to look at the destroyed buildings.
photo released, Getty Images
The village of Etrido in Galicia, Spain, is usually under water.
The drought revealed treasures lost in the UK, too.
Remains believed to belong to a church have been unearthed in the village of Derwent in Derbyshire.
The village was flooded in the 1940s to make way for the construction of the Lady Power Dam lake.
photo released, Terry Westerman
The Derwent Church towers were originally left intact as a memorial but were later removed.
There are also traces of ancient trees in the Lake Culliford Reservoir in Cornwall.
The area in Bodmin Moor was flooded in the 1980s.
photo released, Getty Images
These trees have been under water since the Bodmin Moor basin overflowed.
And the effects of some gardens from the seventeenth century appeared in Lydiard Park in Swindon, southwest England, after the hot weather led to the drying of the herbs to reveal traces under the ground of the presence of those gardens.
Similar “ghost gardens” have also appeared in Longleat, a stately home adjacent to the park.
photo released, Phil Jefferies
Traces in the ground showing former gardens in Lydiard Park.