Grace Smith | August 25, 2022

Europe has experienced one of the worst droughts in over 500 years this summer, lowering water levels, which exposed shipwrecks, bombs, and other lost materials. Europe experienced climate change-induced temperatures, including over 104 degrees Fahrenheit in Britain. 

As water levels drop in Europe, old relics are often exposed. In Rome, a bridge, over 2,000 years old was uncovered. In addition, the monument Dolmen of Guadalperal in Spain emerged from Madrid waters, and a small Spanish village from 1960 was revealed.  

Other items underwater were uncovered during Europe’s hot summer, including supplies used in combat. In July, a fisherman in Italy discovered a 1000-pound bomb in the Po River. Also, ships from Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet that sunk in 1944 — which had 10,000 pieces of unexploded artillery — were seen in Serbia in August. 

In addition to old relics, hunger stones — which mark water levels during droughts and remind older generations of the past, according to the German word — are now showing dates from 1417 and 1616 in the Elbe River near Děčín, Czech Republic.