Archeologists work at the dried out riverbed of river Danube near Erd, Hungary on Oct. 25, 2018. Due to the low water level of the Danube River, a real treasure has been revealed here on Thursday, including several thousands of gold and silver coins and ancient weapons. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)
BUDAPEST, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Due to the record low level of the Danube River, a real treasure has been revealed here on Thursday, including several thousands of gold and silver coins and ancient weapons.
"Large quantities of coins, weapons and other remnants of diverse tools and objects have been excavated by the archaeologists of the Ferenczy Museum Center (FMC) on the temporarily dried out riverbed near the town of Erd," said the director of the Museum Gabor Gulyas.
The treasure could be coming from a ship that went under the waters in the middle of the 18th century.
Archaeologists already discovered more than a thousand coins, partly Hungarian coins, and a large number of coins from Western Europe, such as Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Divers and experts with drones are helping the archeologists to try to locate the hull of the ship itself, but are racing against the clock as the water level of the Danube will be on the rise again from Saturday.
The Danube hit a record low level of only 38 cm in the Hungarian capital Budapest on Thursday.
This is 3 centimeters lower than the negative record measured on Oct. 17, 2018, according to the National Hydrological Directorate (OVF). Further negative records are expected in the sections below Budapest for the next 24 hours.
Although water levels are expected to be on the rise from Saturday, a slower, but longer flood is expected from the beginning of next week. "As a result, the Danube will be expected to approach its average water level in the next few weeks, and its yield will be about 3-3.5 times the current low value," OVF explained.
The lower level of the river has already led to the discovery of many different and peculiar objects, such as the remains of the former Franz Josef Bridge, destroyed during the Second World War, the skeleton a complete car at Budafok (a southern district of Budapest district), an old bomb of the American Airforce, and small canals that led toxins into the river at the old gas plant in Obuda (north of Budapest).
