Drought Uncovers ‘Spanish Stonehenge’ Hidden Underwater For Decades
Drought Uncovers ‘Spanish Stonehenge’ Hidden Underwater For Decades
"I had seen parts of it peeking out from the water before, but this is the first time I've seen it in full."

As a resident of Peraleda de la Mata, a village just a couple miles from the dolmen’s location, Castaño has been familiar with the ancient structure all his life. Yet, this is the first time he has been able to truly appreciate its magnificence.

The Dolmen de Guadalperal was not always submerged underwater. The area around Cáceres was still dry when the monument was first uncovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier, who led an excavation of the site in the mid-1920s. It wasn’t until four decades later that Obermaier’s paper about the ancient structure was finally published.

The archaeological site, for the most part, remained undisturbed until the Spanish government wanted to build a dam and reservoir right around it. Construction of the Valdecañas Reservoir flooded the area and submerged the historical stones in water in 1963.

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