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According to Xinhua News Agency, the receding water level of the Yangtze River has revealed an island in the Chongqing city area of southwestern China, containing three Buddhist statues believed to be 600 years old. The three statues were found on the highest point of the island. Authorities initially determined the statues were built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. One of the three statues depicts a monk seated on a lotus pedestal.
Water levels in the Yangtze River are rapidly dropping due to drought and a prolonged heatwave in southwestern China. The severe heatwave in the basin of China's longest river has lasted more than two months, disrupting hydropower and drying up a large area of farmland.
Approximately 820,000 hectares of farmland from Sichuan to Anhui were damaged, affecting 830,000 people and 160,000 livestock, mainly in areas that rely on small reservoirs or mountain streams for irrigation.
The rocky outcrop where the three Buddha statues were discovered at the bottom of the Yangtze River.
Rainfall in the Yangtze River basin has been about 45% lower than normal since July, and high temperatures are likely to persist for at least another week. CCTV reported that as many as 66 rivers in 34 districts of Chongqing have dried up. Weeks of drought across Europe have also exposed long-buried treasures.
In Spain, archaeologists were delighted to discover an area containing prehistoric stone slabs at a dry dam. Scientists dubbed it "Spanish Stonehenge," similar to the Stonehenge statues in England.
The drought also caused the water level of Europe's second-longest river, the Danube, to drop, revealing dozens of wrecks of Nazi German warships sunk during World War II. Hundreds of ships belonging to a Nazi German fleet were sunk along the Danube in 1944 while retreating to avoid attacks by the Soviet Red Army.
According to Reuters, many shipwrecks still contain weapons, ammunition, and explosives, posing a threat to the safety of passing vessels. In addition to unexploded ordnance, some ships still have their command towers and other structures intact, threatening to sink fishing boats or other vessels when the tide is low.
