Receding water levels of Yangtze have revealed a submerged island in China's southwestern city of Chongqing and a trio of Buddhist statues on it that are believed to be 600 years old, state media Xinhua has reported.
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The three Buddhist statues were found on the highest part of the island reef, Foyeliang, initially identified as built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. One of the Buddhist statues depicts a monk sitting on a lotus pedestal.
The world's third-longest river's water levels have been falling rapidly due to a drought and a heatwave in China's southwestern region.
Official forecasts said rainfall in the Yangtze basin has been around 45% lower than normal since July, and high temperatures are likely to persist for at least another week.
On August 19, state broadcaster CCTV said, as many as 66 rivers across 34 counties in Chongqing have dried up.
Weeks of serious drought across Europe have also exposed long-submerged treasures.
In Spain, archaeologists have been delighted by the re-emergence of a prehistoric stone circle dubbed the "Spanish Stonehenge," which is believed to date back to 5000 BC.
Another of Europe's mighty rivers, the Danube, has plunged to one of its lowest levels in almost a century, exposing the remains of more than 20 German warships sunk during World War II near Serbia's riverport town of Prahovo.