The 7,000-year-old Spanish tombstone was first 'exposed' after half a century

After 50 years of hiding from the water of an artificial lake in western Spain, the 7,000-year-old tombstone called the Dolmen of Guadalperal has finally returned to dry land.

As the new image taken from NASA's Landsat 8 satellite shows, the reappearance of ancient ruins is due to the very low water level in Spain's Valdecañas reservoir after a hot and drought-prone summer across the world. Europe.

Thousand-year-old dolmens in Spain.

Sometimes labeled the "Stonehenge of Spain" , the Dolmen of Guadalperal is a large circle of 150 standing stones, more than 1.8 meters high, arranged around a central oval.

Archaeologists speculate that this structure was built in the 4th or 5th millennium BC.

An exceptionally large stone seems to mark the entrance. This stone threshold is engraved with a figure on one side and doodles on the other side may represent a snake or the nearby Tagus river.

If a waterway is actually described, that could make the stone one of the oldest maps in Europe.

Since the creation of the reservoir, the tops of some huge rock blocks have sometimes penetrated the surface of the water, but never before has the entire area been raised at once.

Local research groups have proposed moving the entire site to higher terrain, so that the stones can be studied outdoors and visited by the people. However, some archaeologists are concerned that moving the monument could accelerate its decline, especially if the work is done in such a hurry.

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