Spanish town sticks out in the middle of the lake after the drought

A prolonged drought caused the Spanish town's ruins to emerge after decades of underwater.

The abandoned Mansilla de la Sierra town nearly 60 years ago reappeared in the middle of the reservoir after a long drought in the area, the IFL Science reported yesterday.

Mansilla de la Sierra is located in La Rioja valley, 274km north of Madrid. In 1959, the settlement moved to make room for Mansilla reservoir construction, supplying irrigation water to the village of Alto Najerilla.

Ruins of Mansilla de la Sierra town.

After the locals moved to the nearby town, the reservoir was filled with water, submerging the entire house in Mansilla de la Sierra. Particularly dry summers make the mountain town reappear, giving people and visitors the opportunity to visit long-standing abandoned buildings. This phenomenon occurs frequently, mainly in the last weeks of the summer when the heat makes the lake water level lower.

Many villages in Spain were submerged by the construction of a reservoir in the 20th century, including a 1,000-year-old village of San Romé de Sau and Mediano, where the 16th-century church is located under water.

In 2015, the water level of the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir in Chiapas, Mexico, fell 25 meters, revealing the ruins of the Santiago church built in the 16th century. The church was abandoned in the 1770s due to the plague spilling over the unexpected area. emerged after a dam was built nearby in 1966.

The ruins were submerged for decades of the old town.(Video: Telecinco).