Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine (“If you see me, then weep”), reads the grim inscription on a rock in the Elbe River near the northern Czech town of Děčín, close to the German border. The so-called “hunger stone” at Děčín is one of dozens in central European rivers engraved to mark their levels during historic droughts – and warn future generations of the famine and hardship likely to follow each time they became visible. The ‘hunger stone’, one of the oldest hydrological monuments in central Europe, in Děčín. The bank of the Elbe is dried out after a long time of drought in Dresden, eastern Germany. The foundation walls of the village of Berich at the bank of the Edersee reservoir near Waldeck, Germany.

Source: The Guardian August 19, 2022 10:44 UTC