Drought in Europe exposes sunken World War II ships as water levels plummet 

If you have been keeping track of global news, you are aware of the massive heatwave across Europe that has triggered widespread wildfires. Now, there’s another natural disaster that has struck Europe: Drought. In fact, it has now been many weeks since the water levels in lakes and rivers have been drastically dropping to record levels. But guess what, every bad thing happens for a good reason, probably!  Here, the good reason is the chance discovery of submerged treasures. Unfortunately, that has also brought forth some unwanted hazards. Here’s a look at all of them.  

Spanish Stonehenge 
As you can guess from the name, this sunken treasure was located in Spain and has delighted archaeologists. It’s a prehistoric stone circle called Spanish Stonehenge that is often away from human sight as it remains covered under layers of water from a dam. Officially dubbed as “Dolmen of Guadalperal,” this ancient stone circle now stands exposed almost fully in a corner of Valdecanas reservoir, situated in the central province of Caceres. Sources cite that the water levels here have gone down by 28 per cent. Earlier, it was unearthed by a German archaeologist named Hugo Obermeir in 1926, but the floods of 1963 submerged it once again. However, since then it has been partially exposed four times, though not to the recent level.  

German hunger stones  
The recent drought has also exposed not one but many hunger stones along the River Rhine in Germany in the past few weeks, rekindling memories of previous droughts. For those unaware, these stones have dates and people’s initials from the past engraved on them and their re-emergence is often seen as a bad omen by many. Two of the most famous stones in Worms, south of Frankfurt and Rheindorf near Leverkusen, have dates such as 1947, 1959, 2003 and 2018, all markers of past droughts.  

German warships 
One of Europe’s most voluminous river, Danube, has also been witnessing declining water levels, lowest in nearly a century, as a result of which it has exposed ruins of more than 20 sunken German warships from the World War II. They have been traced near Serbia’s port town Prahovo. Interestingly, these ships were among the hundreds of vessels that traversed along the Danube by Nazi-led Germany’s infamous Black Sea Fleet around 1944. The aim was to defend again the then Soviet naval forces.  

World War II bomb in Italy 
Drought conditions in Italy has been so drastic since late July that authorities were forced to declare a state of emergency near areas along River Po, the country’s longest river. This has in turn exposed a 450-kg bomb from World War II, thanks to plummeting water levels. Interestingly, military experts defused and carried out a controlled explosion of the same recently, near the northern village of Borgo Virgilio. Around 3000 people had to be evacuated for this mission.