Drought Reveals Danube's Treasures: From Nazi Ships to 10,000-Year-Old Mammoth Bones
Record-low river levels, caused by prolonged heatwaves, have surfaced a sunken wartime fleet, ancient fossils, and a long-lost shipwreck in Croatia.
Record-low river levels, caused by prolonged heatwaves, have surfaced a sunken wartime fleet, ancient fossils, and a long-lost shipwreck in Croatia.
Extreme heatwaves and prolonged drought that have gripped Europe this summer have driven the Danube to record-low levels, unveiling astonishing treasures and relics from the past. From the mighty remains of an Ice Age mammoth in Bulgaria, to dozens of German warships scuttled during World War II in Serbia, and even the wreck of a Hungarian cargo ship in Croatia, the riverbed has become an unexpected archaeological site.
Near the Serbian port of Prahovo, the receding Danube has exposed dozens of German warships that the Nazis scuttled during their retreat from Romania at the end of the war. According to a CBS News report, at least 20 ships, believed to have belonged to the German Black Sea Fleet, are now visible, with some still containing mines, shells, and other unexploded ordnance. The Bulgarian news agency BTA notes that some vessels were removed after the war, but many remained submerged.
This is not the first time these wartime wrecks have surfaced. During the hot summers of 2022 and 2024, several sunken Nazi ships had already emerged from the Danube due to low water levels. Prahovo resident Krsta Brandic described the impact on river traffic. "As you can see, [large] ships can no longer pass," Brandic told the Associated Press.
The falling water levels have not bypassed Croatia either. Near Opatovac, the wreck of the Hungarian cargo ship Fulton, which sank in the Danube back in 1937 while carrying coal, has been discovered. This find, directly linked to climatic conditions, further underscores how drought affects the entire river's course and reveals layers of history hidden beneath the surface.
On Wednesday, the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund) announced another grim discovery on the banks of the Danube in Budapest. The skeletal remains of two Nazi soldiers, along with a World War II motorcycle believed to be a DKW NZ 350-1 model, were found near Batthyány Square. Volksbund reported that German Tellermine 35 anti-tank mines and a "Kuban Shield" badge, a military decoration awarded for the Battle of the Kuban Bridgehead in 1943, were also discovered.
It was particularly noted that the soldiers' identification tags were fully preserved, suggesting they had been listed as missing because their deaths were not officially recorded at the time. Their remains will be buried at the German military cemetery in Budaörs, near Budapest.
Last week, the Bulgarian agency BTA reported perhaps the most spectacular find. After the Danube fell to a record low, a local resident of the village of Ryahovo in northern Bulgaria noticed unusual remains on the riverbed. They turned out to be the bones of an ancient mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius).
"Various finds have been uncovered here over the years, including animal remains, vessels, and other objects," said Ryahovo's mayor, Hristina Ivanova, told BTA. The news spread like wildfire. "At first, we didn't want to create unnecessary expectations before we were sure what exactly was found. After experts conducted an initial examination, the information quickly reached the media. Now the whole village knows about it, and in this case, the whole of Bulgaria," Ivanova added.
Nikolay Nenov, director of the Regional Historical Museum in Ruse, confirmed that experts on site identified a lower jaw, two tusks, and likely a rib of the mammoth. "I wouldn't call it a sensation, but any discovery of such ancient remains is very important for science," Nenov told BTA. Preliminary estimates suggest the animal stood nearly five meters tall and weighed over seven tons.
Krasimir Kirov, curator in the museum's Department of Nature, offered a more detailed explanation. "The area near Ryahovo likely represents a sort of deposit where the Danube's current carried and accumulated remains of various animals, not just mammoths. The terrain's characteristics probably led to their accumulation here, creating a kind of 'storage bank,'" he explained. Kirov added that the species to which the mammoth belongs dates back roughly 7,000 to 10,000 years, having appeared 500,000 to 800,000 years ago, living in a significantly colder climate than today. Due to prolonged exposure to oxygen after emerging from the water, the bones are in poor condition.
These incredible discoveries along the entire course of the Danube, from Germany to the Black Sea, are a dramatic consequence of climate change that is reshaping European landscapes and bringing forgotten pages of history to the surface.
