Europe's drought reveals treasures of the past

Nearly half of Europe is suffering from the current drought conditions, according to the European Drought Observatory. Around 17% of the continent is currently under alert. In central Spain, the Guadiana River has dried up completely in stretches. The 14th-century Puente de la Mesta bridge has been completely covered by water since the construction of the Ciara reservoir in 1956.

It resembles a whale carcass, but this is actually the remains of a sunken cargo ship. Near Kleve, in northwestern Germany, the water in the Rhine River has dropped so low that it has exposed the remains of a 123-year-old freighter for the first time. The German Weather Service has noted that this year's summer was among the 10 warmest and driest since records began more than 140 years ago.

In Rome, water is scarce in the Tiber River. Passenger ships can just barely make it through the almost dry channel under the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II bridge. Directly in front of the modern bridge, the low water level has uncovered the foundations of an ancient Roman bridge built during the time of Emperor Nero, who ruled from 37 to 68 A.D.

At Prahovo, in Serbia, more than 20 shipwrecks from World War II have surfaced in what's left of the Danube River. The remains are only a small part of the approximately 200 wrecks that are believed to still lie in the key waterway. The ships were sunk in 1944 when the German Black Sea Fleet was in retreat from Soviet troops.

In Spain, which has been particularly stricken by the drought, the Dolmen of Guadalperal have resurfaced. The site in Extremadura, which has been dated to between 3,000-2,000 B.C., has been at least partially covered by the water of the Valdecanas reservoir since 1963. In 2019, an extreme drought completely exposed the stones for the first time.