As bad as Europe's ongoing brutal drought is, you can't help but be sort of darkly fascinated by this stuff:

As Europe's rivers run dry in a devastating drought that scientists say could prove the worst in 500 years, their receding waters are revealing long-hidden artefacts, from Roman camps to ghost villages and second world war shipwrecks. ...

Italy's longest river, the parched Po, whose water level is at a 70-year low, has yielded the remains of an ancient hamlet in Piedmont. More recent relics to emerge from the river include the wreck of the Zibello, a 50-metre cargo barge sunk during the second world war, a Nazi military vehicle and, near Mantua, a 450kg (1,000lb) bomb, whose discovery and detonation required the evacuation of more than 3,000 people from their homes.

And yes, they did indeed detonate the bomb:

Elsewhere in Italy have been found even older ruins:

In Rome, the receding Tiber has revealed the ruins of a bridge believed to have been built during the first century for the emperor Nero so he could more easily visit his possessions on the right bank of the river, including the villa of his mother, Agrippina.

The remains of bridge itself is not much to look at, but just knowing it's been under there for two thousand years, falling apart but still recognizable...that's incredible.

The Nazi warships are haunting for their blown-out, water-worn grimness:

Drowned villages, meanwhile, are never not creepy:

In Spain, long-submerged villages have become unlikely tourist attractions. Aceredo, a small town near the border with Portugal, was flooded by the River Lima in 1992 to make room for the Alto Lindoso reservoir, but has resurfaced this spring.

And just for fun, there are some prehistoric monuments that have resurfaced:

There have also been uncovered "hunger stones" dating back centuries. These are etched stones with messages like, "If you see me, weep," written by past generations that warn about impending drought – an indicator that these droughts are not a new phenomenon.

Let's hope the drought ends very very soon but in the meantime this stuff is pretty nuts to see.

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