Early Holocene Island below Budapest's III. District

MAGYARUL

Thanks to the joint research of prehistoric archaeologists and geographers, more and more details are becoming known about an ancient Danubian island and its first inhabitants, located under the 3rd district of Budapest. This big island once stretched from Csillaghegy (north) to Hajógyári Island (south), but its side arm was blocked off from the main Danube some 6000 years ago for climatic and tectonic reasons. In the Early Holocene, this Western Danube arm was gradually occupied by the surrounding watercourses, but traces of the riverbed can still be seen in the street network of the Mocsárosdűlő and Csillaghegy. 

Early Holocene hidrography of the Óbuda plains.  (I. Viczián) [2]

The proceedings of the XI. MΩMOΣ Research of Prehistory Conference, 10-12 April 2019, focused on the relationship between the environment and humans. The Óbuda area has been a priority area of research in landscape and environmental reconstruction, especially in relation to the Roman past of Aquincum. In the publication published in 2023 as Volume III of the Prehistoric Studies, a total of three papers discuss the environmental reconstruction of the prehistoric Danubian floodplain of Óbuda in three different excavation areas. At the site of Királyok útja 291-295, the researchers found the Danube mouth of the Csillaghegy Ditch, i.e. the northern tip of the prehistoric island [1]. Shallow drilling was carried out at the swampy area of Mocsárosdűlő in connection with the prehistoric sites along Pusztakúti street [2], and the Neolithic settlement of the island was studied at the site of Nánási street 75-77 [3]. Sediment samples from the excavations in the Csillaghegy Ditch and the Mocsárosdűlő site yielded almost identical results regarding the date of the Danube branch's bedding, despite the fact that the subsequent filling of the former Danube bed created different hydrographic characters at different sections. 

A summary of the end-of-quaternary climate history, with the river meandering activity.

In the Early Holocene period, the Óbuda floodplain between Békásmegyer and Újlak was a very different landscape compared to today. The Danube riverbed was not nearly as well canalised, with its tributaries freely flowing through the floodplain on both sides. During the Early Holocene, the dominant main branch of the Danube had already developed in the Óbuda area, but at that time, even larger side branches were still surrounding the relatively numerous and large islands (e.g. the Óceán Ditch on the east). The Early Holocene Óbuda-Danube branch can be relatively easily identified on a map, as the street network largely preserves the contours of the old riverbeds. The street network of Csillaghegy still shows the Csillaghegy Ditch parallel to the Árpád Street, which turned southwards near the Árpád Bath of Csillaghegy. Here it could form additional islands in the widening channel in the Mocsárosdűlő area. The Early Holocene Óbuda Island was over 5 kilometres long and covered an area of about 600 hectares.

Previously, two ideas competed over where the Óbuda Danube could return to the main branch. According to Ferenc Schweitzer [4], the estuary was originally located at the northern tip of Margaret Island, north of Újlak. This supposed Danube branch has been identified by archaeologists in the form of a drainage ditch at the foot of the Kiscell hilltop, but the archaeological fact that the legionary camp of Aquincum, i.e. the built-up area, extended from the Danube to the foot of the hilltop, rules out a Roman Danube bed in this area. If there were smaller creeks below the Kiscelli Hill in prehistoric times, they were displaced from the area by the Roman period at the latest and diverted north of the legionary camp into a new, shorter and straightened channel. 

The other possibility is that Óbuda was last an island in the Pleistocene. The Óbuda Danube originally flowed along the lower reaches of the old channel of the Aranyhegyi creek in the Early Holocene, and its estuary was north of Hajógyári Island. This idea is supported by the age of the Danubian terraces excavated in the Óbuda area and their height relative to the Danube level. 

The highest elevations of the Early Holocene Óbuda Island are marked by the level of terrace II/a, which was raised during the whole Holocene by sand layers blown out of the barren western mountains, the Transdanubian terrace surface and the riverbed [4]. The terrace no. I alias the higher floodplain level had already been formed (at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary - see the Gábris-Nádor Figure 2007), but the lower floodplain levels were only carved out by the Danube later, during the Subboreal. This means that each terrace level was 'one step lower' in the numbering: the present Terrace I (high floodplain) existed then at a low floodplain level, while the now flood-free Terrace II/a may have been a Terrace I (high floodplain) in the Early Holocene. 

Archaeology and earth sciences study the same layers in excavations, but their methods, approaches and basic objectives are different. Sometimes, however, the common sets create fruitful collaborations between representatives of each discipline, giving a more complex and comprehensive picture of the interaction between past people and their former environment. Archaeologists categorise buried layers of soil primarily on the basis of human factors such as artefacts, while geoscientists draw conclusions from the geochemistry, grain size, colour and mineral composition of the layer. The working procedures, the methods of dating and the instruments used deserve a separate entry, but fortunately the studies in this volume discuss this in a paragraph or two. In short, each archaeogeographical environment is characterised by different sedimentation. If a poorly sorted, organic matter-poor, gravelly, gravelly sandy layer is found, it may be inferred that the sediment was deposited in the bed of an active river. The total thickness of this late Quaternary river sediment in the Óbuda catchment is 10-15 m. The Danube beds were cut into this terrace gravel. The sediments are rich in organic matter, typically fine-grained and dark in colour, and typically settle in a marshy environment. Thus, based on the type, succession and thickness of sediments, it is possible to basically define a sedimentary environment, including the life cycles of a buried riverbed.  

The following sequence of layers was reconstructed at the northern section of the Csillaghegy Ditch (Királyok útja 291-295) on the basis of the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating:

6500 BC: Danube sediments, gravel, pebbles (active riverbed)

6000-5500 BC: shallow water, floodplain sediments of the Danube (sedimentation, decreasing water discharge)

5000-3000 BC: sediment deficit. Presumably, the reverse flow of a small creek in the Danube valley in the Danube lowlands carried sediments away. 

AD 1-1000: deposition of marshy sediments due to decreasing water flow, possibly caused by Roman drainage, which drained the waters of the Mocsáros marsh and Rómaifürdő springs mainly to the south.

1500 AD: accelerating sedimentation, marshy sediments.

Riverbed reconstruction based on sediment samples taken at the former mouth of the Csillaghegy Ditch  (Gy. Sipos) [1]

On the basis of the discovered Neolithic settlements, the researchers assume that in the Csillaghegy area the Western Óbudai Danube has already been blocked off from the main Danube by the Middle Neolithic. The water network was radically altered by the deglaciation, as the former Danube arm flowing in a southerly direction was replaced by the Csillaghegy Ditch, which transported waters of the mountainous area and springs into the Danube, but in the opposite direction, northwards. The Óbuda-Danube branch was influenced by the precipitation of the Atlantic climate phase. The sediments suggest that the Danube bed migrated slightly eastwards in parallel with the drift and incision, while the mouth of the stream in the Csillaghegy Ditch was dragged southwards. The latter is a phenomenon commonly observed in lowland streams flowing into the Danube. 

The cross sections of two different floodplain levels excavated during the excavation, "Section B is the higher floodplain, Section A the lower floodplain. (Viczián I.)

At the same time, the excavation at 295 Királyok útja revealed different processes at different levels of the floodplain in prehistory. At the higher levels, suitable for human settlement, only 30-60 cm of sediment including artefacts was deposited from the Middle Neolithic to the Late Iron Age, while the lower floodplain sediment deposited during the same period was 250 cm thick. This means that sediment accumulation on the higher ground was already taking place in a typically terrestrial environment at this time. This includes the human cultural layer, airborne dust, organic matter from vegetation and silt deposited by the major Danube floods. Meanwhile, flooding was much more frequent at the lower level, i.e. the differences between the two floodplain levels were gradually eroded by the Danube-derived sediment, making the initially lower floodplain level increasingly suitable for human settlement. In this respect, it is no coincidence that the ruins of the town of Aquincum, lying on a nearly flood-free surface, are covered in places by less than 25 cm of sediment.

Cross-section of the Mocsárosdűlő explored by shallow geological drilling
and the stratigraphic boundaries identified on the basis of macroscopic features (Sipos Gy.) [2]

In the Mocsárosdűlő area, the OSL dating reconstructed the following sequence of strata:

5930-4910 BC Sand and gravel sediment, active fluvial formation, island-structured, multi-branched river network. This layer was overlain by a fine-grained clayey silt layer, which was already a precursor of sedimentation. 

5410-4610 BC Another layer of gravel was deposited on top of the silty layer, indicating renewed river activity. This was the last active period of the Western Óbudai Danube. 

4610-2800 BC After this period, the presence of river sediment in the marshland area ceases. The decrease in the sedimentation rate indicates that, over time, floods reached the area less and less frequently. The Mocsáros, which at that time still had an open, lake-like water surface, was supplied by groundwater and streams from the surrounding valleys, but at the same time the alluvial cone of the Aranyhegyi stream was building up and expanding at the expense of the open water surface.

2800 BC - AD 14th c. Shallow, eutrophic, marshy environment, increasingly dark, organic-rich sediments. The carving out of the low floodplain, followed by Roman drainage, further depleted the groundwater in the area, and thus the open waters of the Mocsáros marsh. From the Middle Ages to the present day, sedimentation has continued, with the marshy surface becoming increasingly smaller. 

Results of OSL and C14 dating on sediments from Drill No. 4. (Gy. Sipos) [2]

After the Óbudai Danube became an oxbow, complex processes took place in the former riverbed, but in general, the surface-forming influence of the surrounding watercourses increased significantly, while the Danubian influence gradually decreased. Floods entered the old tributary less and less frequently, and the sediment deposited there could only be partially transported by the smaller watercourses flowing into the Danube. These watercourses also transported a considerable amount of (slope) sediment from the valleys running down from the west. As a result, the riverbed, estimated at a maximum width of 200 meters, has been steadily narrowing. One of the interesting features of this Early Holocene basin is that the upper and lower estuaries of the basin were not closed, as streams on both sides continued to 'use' the riverbed. Finally, it was only anthropogenic interventions in the 19th and 20th centuries (sluices, stream bed relocations) that eliminated the former upper and lower estuaries.

Hydrography of the III. district between the Middle Neolithic and the Middle Ages.
(I. Viczián) [2]

Danube influence continued to be exerted through the groundwater, which during floods was moving between the oxbow and the Danube through the loose, gravelly alluvium. During floods, the deepest areas, such as the Mocsárosdűlő, were saturated with water, while during low water periods the river sucked this stagnant water away. Later, human intervention, canalisation and drainage further increased this suction effect. In addition, the surface waters of the Mocsáros were fed by springs, surface water courses and direct precipitation. The combined flow of these probably did not exceed 2 cubic metres per second. In the volume Ókori táj, ókori város [4], the water yield of all springs in the area was estimated at 42000 cubic metres per day. This is equivalent to about half a cubic metre per second, to which must be added the average flow of the Aranyhegyi creek of 0.3 cubic metres per second, and the flow of other smaller streams. Over the past millennia, some of these watercourses have been buried by the city and climatic influences may have modified the water yield, so that an exact value for these can no longer be determined. By comparison, this is at most a third of the water yield of the Zala river entering the lake Balaton. In addition, it should be noted that the waters of the oxbow flowed in two directions due to the effect of the emerging watershed in the Óbuda-Danube basin. From the late Neolithic onwards, the waters of the Mocsáros surplus, the sources of the Roman baths, the Árpád spring and the waters coming from the Kert street in Békásmegyer reached the Danube in a northerly direction via the Csillaghegy Ditch, while the combined waters of the Aranyhegyi stream and the Rádl Ditch flowed in a southerly direction. It is possible, however, that the Aranyhegyi stream may have changed its course in the early period from its newly formed alluvial cone in the channel. From Roman times onwards, human influence has profoundly redrawn the hydrology of the landscape. 

Connections between archaeological cultures and sediments of the Mocsárosdűlő. (Gy. Sipos) [2]

As archaeological research uncovers more and more of the Early Holocene Óbuda Island, our ideas about the prehistoric landscape and environment are expanding and refining regarding the area of Budapest's III. district. The research even sheds light on when humans settled on this piece of land. 

The relationship between prehistoric man and the river is illustrated by the sites along the river banks, which in some periods were closer to the river and in others moved further away from it. This periodicity has long been known to climatologists because it can be linked to changes in climate. In wetter periods, when flood risk increased, human settlements moved away from the river, while in drier periods they may have even occupied the lower floodplains intermittently. 

The cutting off of the Óbudai Danube by the Middle Neolithic, facilitated access to the area, and the deepening of the main branch of the river created the opportunity for the settlement of communities of the Linear Pottery culture (c. 5500–4500 BC). The occupation of the former Danubian areas of the island of Óbuda may have begun during the period of the pottery of the Notehead ceramics style (c. 5300-5200 BC). Then, gradually, several new settlements were established, when there was only an oxbow at the site of the Mocsáros. The site of the village excavated by Zsuzsanna M. Virág at 75-77 Nánási Street was inhabited until the end of the Želiezovce group period (c. 4900 BC). During the Želiezovce period, previously uninhabited islands were also populated, such as the northern tip of the present-day Óbuda Island. This means that the present-day Óbuda Island and Margaret Island with its similar floodplain levels may have existed at the end of the Holocene. The settlement excavated on Nánási street was formed on a land surface sloping down to the east, i.e. towards the Danube, and consisted of two parts. The higher (103.6 m.B.f.) and the deeper (102 m.B.f.) parts were separated by a two-metre deep ditch. Settlement on the lower surface could only have been intermittent, interrupted by the rising water level of the Danube in the late Neolithic (4950-4400 BC) [3].  

Recent hydrological features of the III. district. I. Viczián [2]

Human settlement has ultimately accelerated the natural processes of sedimentation of the Óbuda oxbow lake. Settlements had to be provided with access through the former Óbudai Danube riverbed. Farmers were also interested in filling in deeper areas and in the canalization of creeks towards the Danube. The ponds turned into sloughs, the sloughs into marshes, the marshes into bogs, while the wetlands continued to shrink. The climatically and tectonically incised main branch of the Danube have disappeared for good after the last layer of gravel in the marsh. Danubian floods continued to inundate the area for a long time and accumulated considerable amounts of silt. Thus, one of Budapest's largest islands ceased to exist some 6,000 years ago, and the fact that record floods can sometimes still form open water in the deepest parts of the Mocsáros, does not change this.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

MΩMOΣ XI. Research of Prehistory Conference 

Proceedings of the conference held at the BTM (Budapest History Museum) Aquincum Museum on 10-12 April 2019. Link: https://edit.elte.hu/xmlui/handle/10831/85856?key=%C5%91sr%C3%A9g%C3%A9szeti%20tanulm%C3%A1nyok

[1] Gábor Szilas – István Viczián – György Sipos – Dávid Gergely Páll – Zsuzsanna M. Virág – Kinga Rekeczki: The Impact of Fluvial Landscape Evolution on Prehistoric Settlement Patterns along the Danube: An Interdisciplinary Environmental Reconstruction in Óbuda, NW Budapest

[2] Farkas Márton Tóth – István Viczián – György Sipos – Dávid Gergely Páll – Zsuzsanna M. Virág – Gábor Szilas – Dávid Kraus: Environmental Changes along a Former Tributary of the Danube. Interdisciplinary Research in Mocsárosdűlő (Budapest, District III) 

[3] Zsuzsanna M. Virág: Neolithic Humans and the River Danube. The Possibilities of Environmental Reconstruction in an Urban Area. A Case Study (75–77 Nánási Road, Budapest, District III.

[4] Katalin H. Kérdő, Ferenc Schweitzer, (2010) Aquincum : ókori táj, ókori város. http://real-eod.mtak.hu/4508/

Icy Flood in the Sausage Kitchen

MAGYARUL

At the end of the winter of 1893, the owner was forced to repaint his 'Wurstküche' at the foot of the Salt Barn in Regensburg's old town for the second time in a decade after the oddly shaped small building was inundated by the icy floodwaters of the Danube. Along with the renovation, Fritz Schricker had another flood sign made, this time not inside the restaurant's guest area, but outside on the western wall outside, and even had his own name engraved in ornate Gothic letters. It is a recent custom at that time, for if the owners of the restaurant had had a flood sign made after every major flood on the Danube, Fritz Schricker's 1893 flood sign - a little exaggeratedly - would not have fit on the wall. Neither inside nor outside.

Fritz Schricker's memory is preserved along with the flood level in his restaurant, which was owned by the same family until 1990. And since 1893, six more flood levels have been added to one of the world's oldest restaurants, a sausage kitchen called the Historische Wurstküche, or Wurstkuchl as it is spelled in the local dialect. The terrace at Weiße-Lamm-Gasse 3 offers a spectacular view over the Danube, the northern tip of the island of Unterer Wöhrd, with Oberer Wöhrd behind it, the Stone Bridge (built between 1135 and 1146) to the left, and the huge, four-century-old Salt Barn to the west. Despite its central location, the Wurstkuchl was a suburban building in the strictest sense of the word, being outside the Danube-side city walls built after 1320, until 1856, when the city finally succeeded in having the ancient walls, which had been maintained at great expense, demolished. However, the demolition of the wall would have been problematic in the case of the Wurstkuchl, because the back wall of the restaurant was the city wall itself, so a piece of the old Regensburg city wall still stands on this section, commemorated by a plaque. Its 'suburban' location meant that while the imperial city of Regensburg was protected by thick walls from the Danube flooding, the Wurstkuchl was flooded by practically all major floods, but the owners still considered it worth the trouble of saving the equipment and drying out the wet walls, as the oldest crossing of the Danube still standing today provided enough traffic to restart the business again and again. 

The eternal recurrence at this point on the Danube is understandable in a literal sense, just as a sensible person can build on flood plains if he calculates that the expected benefits will outweigh the expected losses. It is uncertain when the first restaurant was built on this site, but there are sources that workers on the Steinerne Brücke (Stone Bridge) used to come here for lunch almost 900 years ago. In 1293, the city council of Regensburg decided to build a wall around the outskirts of the city, extending beyond the Arnulfian walls. The southern inland section was completed by 1320, after which the river bank was fortified, with a two-kilometer stretch of city wall, divided by 15 towers. Immediately east of the Stone Bridge stood the Kräncher Tower, a round tower with a crane on top, which served the interests of trade on the quay. Obviously, the Wurstkuchl restaurant must have been built after the construction of the city wall, as this wall formed the back wall of the inn. Archaeologists have excavated the garbage dumps of the kitchen on the quayside, which show that meat dishes were typically prepared here, with poultry, beef, pork, rabbit, lamb and goat bones making up the bulk of the finds.

In 1616, the old restaurant was demolished to build the Salzstadel, but after the construction of the huge warehouse that still dominates the image of the city from the Danube, they rebuilt a new building on the exact same spot with a trapezoidal floor plan. This curious shape is explained by a special 4 m by 40 cm section of Hans Georg Bahre's 1630 drawing of Regensburg from the north, i.e. from the Danube. This engraving shows two gates on either side of the Wurstkuchl. These gates ensured the traffic circulation between the Danube quays outside the city walls and the city itself. This quay was quite narrow, as it is unfortunate if the enemy has too much space to lay siege. And in such a narrow area, it would probably be difficult for the carts to turn onto the gate without hitting the tavern, so it was obvious to knock down both protruding corners and build the tavern in a trapezoidal shape. 

The trapezoidal shape meant that the interior, which has to share a space with the kitchen, is rather small, with only 25 guests can be seated, and a total of four flood signs adorning the walls inside. There are a further four flood signs on the outside walls; two on the west and two on the north, either side of the entrance to the Wurstkuchl. It is a rare coincidence of cultural, culinary, hydrological and urban history curiosities where the history of the Danube is so dense; the eight flood signs commemorate seven floods in total, as there is a sign both outside and inside commemorating the March 1988 flood. The order of the flood plaques on the walls of the Wurstkuchl is as follows: 

1893. February 16. ice flood ~700 cm

2013. June (4.) 682 cm

1882. December 29. ice flood 670 cm

1988. March 27. (2 signs) 659 cm

1954. July 645 cm

1965. June 643 cm

2011. January 15. 627 cm

Bavarian idyll with Danubian flood signs (1988 and the bit worn one from 2011) (source)

Each of these floods could be the subject of a separate article, as these years do not always correlate with the major floods in Hungary. This is mainly due to geographical distance, as flood curves may flatten towards the lower sections due to lack of replenishment. This is especially true for icy floods, such as the one we are now discussing, the flood of 1893, which was one of the highest floods in Regensburg, while it peaked at a lower flood level in Vienna, it again flooded villages (e.g. Gerjen) in the Hungarian section due to ice jams forming in the river bends. In Regensburg, the sign for the flood that peaked on 16 February 1893 was the highest on the wall of the Wurstkuchl, but it should be added that ice floods are always separated from ice-free floods by hydrology, This is because it is not always clear where the water ends and the ice begins, and in the case of certain structures, such as the aforementioned Stone Bridge of Regensburg, the swelling effect of the ice jams must be taken into account. 

The two highest flood sign on the Western wall of the Wurstküche.

It is therefore unclear on what basis the owner Fritz Schricker put the second flood sign on the wall of his sausage kitchen. The building was presumably inaccessible at the time of the icy flood, and it was only after the flood had receded that the extent of the damage could be seen. In any case, the flood mark is at least one large span higher than the maximum ice-free flood level, which is also the record level on the Hungarian stretch of the Danube, with the exception of the water gauges at Dunaszekcső and Mohács. The 1893 flood in Regensburg, which peaked just 132 years ago, is also a curiosity in that it has already been photographed, with seven of them available on the Hochwasserschutz Regensburg website, three of which are available in higher resolution below: 

Ice jam above the Stone Bridge seen from the Oberer Wöhrd

The flooded Protzenweiher marketplace in Stadtamhof

Ice jam as seen from the Stone Bridge with the Unterer Wöhrd

One might think that modern flood defences are already capable of protecting urban facilities in the most developed states of Germany, but instead of a positive outcome, it should be noted that the largest floods will continue to flood the Historiches Wurtsküche, despite the fact that a mobile dike system has already been built along this stretch. This is because the flood defences are unable to protect the restaurant from the water pressure rising from below. This is not a problem in the neighbouring Salt Barn, where the weight of the huge building can counteract the rising water table, but this is not the case in the small Wurstkuchl, which is forced to let the Danube break into the building, as this would cause less damage. Thus, it is expected that in the centuries to come, the walls of the small sausage kitchen in Regensburg will bear further flood marks, while there will be no fear of visitors being left behind during periods of low water. 

Literature:

• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historische_Wurstkuchl
• https://www.heimatforschung-regensburg.de/2486/1/1063113_DTL1774.pdf
• https://www.regensburgnow.de/wurstkuchl/
• https://hochwasser-regensburg.tumblr.com/image/52136760733
• https://www.wurstkuchl.de
• https://www.hochwasserschutz-regensburg.bayern.de/dok-historische-hochwasser/galerie-eisgaenge.html
• https://www.regensburg.de/fm/121/hochwasser-bedeutende-pegelstaende.pdf
• https://www.hnd.bayern.de/pegel/donau_bis_passau/regensburg-eiserne-bruecke-10061007?
• Christine Schimpfermann: Hochwasserschutz im Denkmalensemble – Strategien zur Konfliktlösung am Beispiel Regensburg

A Sentence about the Island-wrecks in the Iron Gates

 

MAGYARUL

As the water level on the Danube is never horizontal, neither are the islands, and this phenomenon is only noticeable in cases where people interfere with the natural flow of the river, mostly for the sake of navigation, because ships and their crews do not like going against the flow, they would much rather travel on a water surface like a lake or a sea, but the Danube is not really a lake nor like a sea, and it is not right to try to make it into one, as happened west of Bős/Gabcikovo, where the Danube is almost completely dammed and climbs the steps of a series of locks and weirs, and on the river section between Serbia and Romania, where the mountains compressed the floodplain and did everything they can to make the lives of sailors miserable with their scattered boulders and reefs, so that then, as if out of revenge, the sailors made the lives of the Danube islands, and rock bars miserable, breaking and exploding many of them, sinking them and only leaving some of them untouched, because there is a section between Smeredovo and Moldova Veche, where after the construction of the Iron Gate the reservoir slowly rising from the east could not completely submerge the islands, they hang out of the tilted Danube like the worn-out barges of a stranded fleet, with their noses pointing west, and their eastern barge lies in a shallow watery grave, from which only at low tide do their wrecks, stripped of their island character, emerge, which was not dug out by human hands, there are no regular forms typical of gravel mining, artificial pools, or traces of dredging, it is simply that nature created such arm-shaped islands here, where regular floods first deposited the alluvium transported from far away along the coast of the larger islands, as in the case of river ridges on the coasts, such was the case with Ponjavica, Zavojszka, Cibuklija, Kalinovac and partly the Moldova Veche island, all of which lie like a bitten crust of bread in a certain zone of the Danube, where the place of the breadcrumbs has been taken over by waterfowl and juvenile fish, and on which man, for lack of a better word, has placed the nature conservation area sign, hoping to somewhat obscure the view of this industrial, overturned landscape, which nature is trying to sort out with its own means.

E-shaped island called Kalinovac. (googleearth)

Where Does the Danube End?

MAGYARUL

This is the end, the traveller might say, as the sky widens over the Sulina lighthouse and the river becomes a seemingly endless expanse of water. But is this really the end? According to Plato, "Heraclitus says somewhere that everything is in motion and nothing remains unchanged, and comparing beings to the flow of a river, he says that you cannot step into the same river twice." To find a reassuring answer to the question of where the Danube ends, we need to travel hundreds of kilometres out into the Black Sea, more than a kilometre deep, and over millions of years in time. 

Fig. 1. The situation of the Danube (Viteaz)-canyon at the bottom of the Black Sea. (source)

It is necessary to translate the philosophical ideas of Heraclitus into the language of the more specific earth sciences. Since the Danube has existed, its parameters have been constantly changing, as they did in the early tens of millions of years, during the period of natural evolution when it was shaped solely by natural conditions, and later, in the time span of up to 10,000 years, when human influence has been increasing. The length of the river has changed, at first only the small river meandering in the Alpine foothills filling lakes and bays of the Paratethys Sea, the extent of its catchment area has changed, while its upper reaches have often been overtaken by neighbouring watercourses, such as the Rhine. This, together with changes in climate, has led to changes in discharge, for example, melting after the last glaciation significantly increased the discharge, while dry warm periods reduced it. To give specific examples, the Danube filled (with other rivers) the Pannonian lake, while the Rhine conquered a significant catchment to the west, and the increased discharge spread a huge amount and thickness of gravel material over the Hungarian section of the river, and not only has the source of the Danube changed over the millennia, but the estuary, i.e. the delta, has also migrated, and has been further west than it is today, but what is relevant for the present post is that the Danube has been moving from the river basin to the delta: further east. 

Fig. 2. The position of the Danube canyon on Google maps.

A hundred kilometres southeast of the present Danube Delta, deep-sea research has revealed a distinctive, long and deep gorge valley in the depths of the Black Sea (see Figure 2). Its official name suggests that the Danube must have something to do with it. In the north-western basin of the Black Sea, there is a relatively large shallow shelf area of 140*170 kilometres, with depths varying between 20 and 140 metres, into which four major rivers transport their sediment: the Danube, the Dniester, the South Bug and the Dnieper. The head of the canyon valley cuts deep into the rim of the continental shelf and extends down to the level of the deep-sea bed, while no distinct morphological relationship is visible between the present Danube delta and the head of the canyon valley. 

Fig. 3. Major tributaries of the Black Sea (the Dniester on the wrong place) and depth contours (source)

The head of the Danube Canyon, which cuts into the shelf area, begins at a depth of about 90 metres, and its terminus is lost 100 kilometres away on a wide fan-shaped alluvial cone, breaking up into several branches, in the deepest zone of the Black Sea, at the deep-sea floor, at a depth of about 2100 metres. By comparison, the deepest point in the Black Sea is at 2210 metres. The canyon is two kilometres wide on the section that cuts into the backshore, with steep side walls (up to 30°) and shell-shaped notches all around. The V-shaped valley, which cuts into the valley floor at a depth of 400 metres, curves from the north-west to the south-east with a steep descent on the continental slope, where the valley widens to a width of six kilometres. The distinctive valley continues as a channel on the seabed, where it branches off into a deep-sea delta of its own making. This is not a unique phenomenon, as similar deep-sea canyon valleys have been observed in other rivers, whether in the Amazon, Hudson or Congo estuaries. It would be wrong to think that this submarine geomorphology was formed by river water, so it is questionable whether the Danube ends here. 

Fig. 4. The relief of the Danube Canyon (source) 

It is also questionable how the Danube could have formed this deep-sea gorge, far to the south-east of its known estuary. Since fresh water cannot continue to flow down to the bottom of the sea, forming erosion trenches, once it reaches the erosion base, some other effect must be behind the phenomenon. First of all, it is worth looking at the specific characteristics of the Black Sea, which in many ways is unique compared to other seas. The Black Sea is a typical inland sea, connected to another inland sea only through a thin strait, the Bosporus, as the Mediterranean Sea is also connected to the Atlantic Ocean through a very narrow strait at Gibraltar. The Bosphorus Strait, which connects the two bodies of water, has a minimum depth of only 36.5 metres at the Golden Horn, which means that if global sea levels fall below this point, the Black Sea becomes a saltwater lake. By the way, the sea is also a unique body of water in terms of salinity, since it is a moderately saline brackish water body at the surface down to a depth of 150 metres. This layer is caused by rivers flowing into the sea with high freshwater discharge and oxygen-rich freshwater, under which there is a saltier, anoxic, lifeless layer of water, and the two layers do not mix. The lack of mixing of fresh and salt water rules out the possibility that the Danube water could be currently shaping this canyon. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that it is an inactive valley.

Fig. 5. The sediment fan of the Danube canyon (source) 

There is another possibility for the formation of the canyon, and that is the drastic lowering of sea level, in other words regression. Sea-level rise and fall in the Black Sea is different from similar movements in the world's oceans because of the aforementioned Bosporus threshold. The last 20,000 years provide a good example to illustrate this; at the time of the last glacial maximum (LGM), the Black Sea was most likely a fresh, or at least reduced salinity lake, which received its water from the rivers flowing into it. Its surface was about 110-120 m below present-day sea level at the time of its maximum advance from the ice sheet (white line in Figure 5), i.e. the northern shelf and the Azov Sea were dry. Water covered only the continental slope and the levels of the deep-sea plain. The three major rivers to the west of the Crimean peninsula, the Dniester, the South Bug and the Dnieper, reached the lake at this time in a common channel, while the mouth of the Danube may have been separate and south-west of it, at the head of the canyon valley. As it was a tidal stagnant water, it cannot be assumed that the Danube had a gorge-like estuary at the end of the Ice Age, and almost certainly had a delta estuary even then, which may raise further questions about its geomorphology.

The water level in the Black Lake started to rise after the end of the LGM. Meltwater from the ice sheet in the north (Scandinavia and NW Russia) significantly increased the discharge, capacity of sediment transport of rivers flowing into the lake. During the same period, the rate of the sea level rise in this basin was greater than in the Mediterranean. 13,000 years ago, the level of the Black Lake was approaching, perhaps even reaching, the lovest level of the Bosporus Strait, while the level of the world's oceans was still 70-80 metres below the present level. Some theorise that the freshwater of the Black Sea may have been tumbling through the Marmara Sea into the Mediterranean at this time. However, the rise of the lake stopped at a certain point and the water level began to fall again as the meltwater supply decreased, the waters from the ice sheet no longer finding their way down the great rivers of the Steppes, but heading for the lake that formed where the Baltic Sea once the ice dam had disappeared. 8000 years ago, the situation was almost restored, the shelf area became dry again, the lake level was -90 to -100 metres below the present level. The dry and cold climate built up dune valleys in the coastal areas from the transported sediment, and the rivers took possession of their pre-transgression bed and estuary. 

Around 8,500 years ago, the rising level of the Mediterranean Sea reached and exceeded the Bosporus threshold, and salt water flowed into the Black Lake basin. In an extremely short time, the water level rose by 70-80 metres. Many believe this to be the historical basis of the biblical flood, but it is certain that the former coastal morphology of the Black Sea, the sand dunes, the wave-lashed shores and delta area, were not destroyed by erosion, but were preserved in the deep by the rapid rise in sea level. The Black Sea was thus formed, and its level and the location of the Danube delta were fixed for thousands of years. 

Fig. 6. Changes in the Black Sea level since the LGM (source)

However, it is also important to consider whether the Black Sea level could have been lower at other times, when fluvial erosion would have had the opportunity to exert its erosive effects right down to the bottom of the steep continental slope. Several glaciation phases occurred during the Pleistocene, but global sea level fell to around -120 m in all of them, and as the Black Sea basin was in a similar position during this geological epoch, it is likely that the water level here did not change more than observed in the LGM. If we look at earlier ages, the effects of glaciation can be excluded as a possible cause, but at the end of the Miocene, during the Messinian period (5.9-5.3 million years ago), a tectonic event occurred that caused a series of successive drastic drying events in the Mediterranean basin. During the Messinian Salt Crisis, the connection with the Mediterranean Sea was interrupted and the water balance of the Black Lake turned negative, with evaporation becoming dominant. However, the extent of the sea-level fall is still a matter of debate, with seismic measurements suggesting a subsidence of several hundred metres, while paleontological studies suggest a few tens of metres. However, this regression certainly did not affect the Danube delta, which at that time was still filling the Carpathian Basin and the Pannonian Lake, and the Romanian Plain could have been a (Paratethys) bay (Figure 7). 

Fig. 7. The Black Sea basin during the Messinian Salt Crisis (source)

It follows, therefore, that the Danube canyon, hidden in the depths of the Black Sea, could only have formed towards the end of the Pleistocene, when the Danube delta extended to the edge of the continental shelf in two morphologically distinct phases, during the LGM, almost 13,000 years ago, and it is also likely that the Danube was shaping the canyon, even below sea level. However, slope mass movements, not sweetwater influx, played the main role in the formation of the canyons. The huge amounts of loose sediment transported to the steep rim of the shelf were sometimes unstable and would slide down the slope in landslides, and the lack of material would be replaced by a widening gorge due to the continuing slurry. As the sediment was constantly replenished, the slides recurred, but now at the predicted location and along the slip path. Although submarine slides and gullies can also form in places where there is no estuary, there is no marked backward movement into the continental shelf. The regular mudslides formed a channel on the self-slope and then spread out over the deep-sea plain as gravity ceases, forming a flat alluvial cone. This sediment is known in geology as turbidite, and in many places it can be studied as rock compressed into mountains. 

Fig. 9. ábra Undersead turbidity currents. (wikipedia)

Although sea-level rise and land receding have rendered the gorge valley inactive over time, and human impact (hydrolelectrical dams) has radically reduced the amount of sediment reaching the sea, further landslides may still occur at depth on the steep sides of the gorge. So this is where the Danube ends, at the bottom of the Black Sea, in a geologically very young valley hidden from human sight and its associated deep-sea alluvial cone, hundreds of kilometres from the present-day estuary.

International literature on the canyon is fortunately abundant and can be found here:

• https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=2afea9bb0a2b98713e7ed97b7ff19ff81cffce1f
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02271-z
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825218306998
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277775413_Evolution_of_the_Danube_Deep-Sea_Fan_since_the_last_glacial_maximum_New_insights_into_Black_Sea_water-level_fluctuations
• http://www.blacksea-commission.org/_publ-soe2009.asp
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298354387_Submarine_canyons_of_the_Black_Sea_basin_with_a_focus_on_the_Danube_Canyon
• https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2004.03.003
• https://www.britannica.com/science/submarine-canyon
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012821X12006565 
• https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.11.038
• https://sci-hub.se/10.1144/petgeo2015-093
• https://geoecomar.ro/beta/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/02_OLARIU_c1_2020.pdf
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921818108001744
• https://books.google.hu/books?id=0iXMJJQblg0C&pg=PA82&hl=hu&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q=canyon&f=false
• https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..1811391C/abstract
• https://journals.openedition.org/mediterranee/8186

The Isolation of Stadtamhof

MAGYARUL

In the summer of 1945, a US Army project sent a film crew to document everyday life in post-war Germany, obviously with a focus on the destruction of war, but sometimes with some interesting moments. At the beginning of the aerial footage of USAAF Special Film Project #186 documenting the area around Regensburg, we get a bird's eye view of Stadtamhof from the rear of a plane flying north to south, then after the famous Stone Bridge we see Regensburg and the aftermath of the devastating bombing of its railway station. At the beginning of the film, we see three unfinished pillars in a fenced-off pond, the first stage in the transformation of the town of Stadtamhof into an island on the Danube.

The pillars of the Protzenweiher Brücke in Stadtamhof, summer of 1945 

(Source: National Archives and Records Administration

At first glance, the pond appears to be an artificial structure, the work of the human hand accentuated by the half-finished pillars of a bridge that leads nowhere. The location is Regensburg's old rival, Stadtamhof, on the north bank of the Danube, originally part of Bavaria, which was only administratively annexed to the imperial city of Regensburg on 1 April 1924. In the foreground of the picture you can see the church of St. Mang and the large monastery of the Augustinian canons, which is about 1,000 years old and lies to the east of the main road forming the axis of Stadtamhof, to the south the Danube, which bypasses the Oberer Wöhrd in Regensburg, and to the east the river Regen, which gives the town its name, border the district. 

A view on Regensburg from the Winzer Hills,
with the Oberer Wöhrd in the center and, Stadtamhof to the left

Stadtamhof has always had a direct link to the Danube, as has Regensburg and to a lesser extent to the hilly area behind it, crowned by the Trinity Church of Steinweg, which towers above the Danube valley. The Steinweg and Stadtamhof were not built together until recent times, and a wide field on either side of the main street of Stadtamhof leading to the ancient stone bridge (Steinerne Brücke) in Regensburg has always been preserved on old maps. During the Allied air campaign during the Second World War, this area was a fairground (Dultplatz), where town fairs were held. These fairs flourished especially from 1875 onwards, when the mayor of neighbouring Regensburg banned them, often covering the whole of the main street in Stadtamhof. There was, however, an older, more colloquial name for the area, which, as opposed to the socio-geographical name, refers to the environment in which this fairground was established at the time, and which was retained by the town planning in the name of the bridge that was later built; Protzenweiher, i.e. an area of water (Weiher) where toads (Protzen, or Brotzen) lived.  

The still existing creek north from Stadtamhof on a western oriented map from 1797.
(Source: mapire.eu)

From a geomorphological point of view, this area was probably originally a branch of the Danube, which may have been filled by the late Middle Ages (Hochmittelalter), and archaeological evidence of this has been found. In other words, Stadtamhof was founded on a high plateau, on a flattened island in the Danube, bordered by the Danube to the south and a low marshy floodplain to the north. The geomorphology of the area is illustrated in the following picture, taken in 1970 during a Danube flood on Stadtamhof's main street, looking north towards the church of Steinweg (with the Regensburg Cathedral to the south). The foreground of the picture is higher up, with cobblestones visible, while the area also slopes down towards the north. The Protzenweiher was recorded as being frequently flooded by the Danube, and the water remained in the form of lakes and ponds for a relatively long time, filling in the lower-lying areas, and in winter it also served as a natural skating rink. These floods caused serious disruption to navigation on the Danube, as the arches of the Stone Bridge blocked the river in its entire section, making it impossible for boats to cross underneath, while the Protzenweiher was also blocked in the other direction. 

Flood in Stadtamhof in 1970 with a view towards Steinweg. (Source) 

It is not only east-west traffic that has been disrupted by the floods, but also north-south traffic. In 1784, the road between Stadtamhof and Steinweg was the victim of a major flood on the Danube, and it is important to note that it was not a bridge but a brick embankment, although it was known locally as a bridge (Waisenhausbrückl). The remains of two older similar crossings were found when excavation work began in March 1973 on a new shipping route through the Protzenweiher field, known as the Europakanal. A bridge may have existed here before, but it is certain that when the Stone Bridge was built in 1146, spanning at least two, but more likely three, branches of the Danube, it was not considered necessary to build a bridge over the Protzenweiher branch, the embankment, on which there was almost certainly some kind of culvert to allow the higher water levels to pass. This culvert can be seen on the 1797 map section above. Soon afterwards, this culvert disappears from the maps, as during the Napoleonic Wars, Stadtamhof, which had no fortifications, suffered serious damage, with large parts of the town burnt down by cannon fire from French and Austrian troops. The ruins of the burnt buildings were not taken far, and the nearby Protzenweiher was filled in. This anthropogenic accumulation of 'sediment' is thought to have been constant throughout history, and may have accelerated in times of war.

Stadtamhof in 1943. Source: GoogleEarth

By the 20th century, the increased volume in shipping on the Danube meant that Regensburg's famous Stone Bridge became more and more of an obstacle to river traffic, and Regensburg became the terminal port for international Danube shipping, as larger cargo ships could not fit between the thick pillars. However, the eight-century-old bridge, the symbol of the city, was not to be dismantled for such prosaic reasons, and an alternative route for the ships had to be found. The free space between Stadtamhof and Steinweg was a perfect choice, where no buildings had to be demolished to make way for a new canal, and the only thing that was needed was a new site for the market square. The construction of the canal had already begun in the 1930s with the dredging on the Regen river, and between 1939 and 1940 the piers of the new bridge were completed, but for some reason they were not placed on the route to the Stone Bridge, but a street to the east, where some buildings would have had to be demolished, but were still standing in 1945. Construction was halted by the outbreak of the Second World War, but the steel structure of the Protzenweiher Bridge was completed by 1953, but the lock was not built and the unfinished bridge stood unused for 15 years. 

The almost finishec Canal in July of 1974. (Source: Bundesanstalt für Wasserbau)

The next "first step" of the Europakanal construction was made in March 1973, and at the same time the Regensburg hydroelectric power station was built further west, at the western tip of the Oberer Wöhrd, and started to operate in 1977, the year before the canal was completed. Its dam raised the Danube level by 4.7 metres, swelling the river for 21 kilometres. The canal's 12-metre-wide lock may not seem large, but it provides a bypass for the Danube-Main-Rhine canal traffic, allowing shipping to bypass Regensburg.

The different levels of the Europakanal (left) and the Danube (right)

The Stadtamhof district gradually lost its through traffic, with the Nibelungen Bridge, opened in 1936, playing a major role. On 3 May 1978, it officially became an island in the Danube, accessible only by bridges. In total, there are seven bridges leading to the island, but four of them are pedestrian bridges, including the Stone Bridge, from which car traffic was first banned in 1997 and then, after the World Heritage Site was awarded, buses and taxis from 1 August 2008. The decision to turn one of the 'main streets' of world history into a pedestrian thoroughfare was taken in recognition of the serious damage to the structure of the historic bridge caused by the 1903-1945 tram traffic and heavy vehicles. The Protzenweiher Bridge was, however, built at the eastern end of the lock chamber, right where the US Army had filmed the foundations in 1945. After 1972, the fairground (Dultplatz) was moved east of Stadtamhof, and today this concrete parking lot makes up the entire western part of Stadtamhof Island.  

The lock of the Europakanal in Stadtamhof

Today, around 6000-7000 ships pass through the lock each year. However, the tower at the eastern end of the lock chamber is empty and the lockkeepers have moved away as the system is operated remotely. This tower was built symmetrically, as it was always planned that there would be a second canal and lock. But this never materialised in the end, and probably never will, as the toadfrog swamp has since been built up to the sluice on both sides. 

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Chiar n-a văzut nimeni când s-a rupt stânca Babacaia?

Stânca Babacaia la 1963, forografie făcuă dinspre partea de nord-est (Fortepan / Nándor Drobni)

IN ENGLISH

MAGYARUL

Stânca Babacaia este parte dintre cele mai marcante peisaje dunărene. Voit nu o numesc insulă, pentru că se deosebește deplin de imaginea generală creata insulelor dunărene. Dar atunci ce este? Este un grind? Este o stâncă? La urma urmei nici nu contează, ceea ce contează mai mult este că mulțumită poziției sale speciale dispune de o bine documentată arhivă de imagini, unele chiar cu mult dinainte de apariția tehnicii fotografice. Dacă ne apucăm să analizăm în ordine cronologică imaginile cu stânca putem observa un fapt interesant. Parcă în prezent ea pare mai scundă și mai puțin groasă. Prima remarcă se explică ușor prin ridicarea nivelului apei odată cu construcția hidrocentralei Porțile de Fier I., Dunărea a acoperit „trena” din sudul grindului, dar ce s-a întâmplat cu masa principală a stâncii, care în trecut se prezenta cu capătul despicat în două vârfuri din care azi se mai vede doar unul?

Stânca Babacaia fotografiată de la Coronini (cetatea Sf. László), adică de la est.

În mare parte inofensiv (citez titlul volumului lui Douglas Adams din 1992) – puteau spune navigatorii despre stânca Babacaia. Se prezintă ca un deget aratător ridicat deasupra apei, care atrage de departe atenția asupra pericolului la care pot fi supuse ambarcațiunile (44.672954, 21.677079). Sunt, adică mai bine zis erau, grinduri incomparabil mai pericuolase pe Dunăre, ascunse direct sub luciul apei, dar acestea au fost desființate, împreună cu multe altele, de destul de drastica reglementare regională a albiei fluviului. Stânca Babacaia, împreună cu ruina cetății Sf. László și cu ceva mai bine păstrata cetate Golubovăț păzesc în trei acest segment al Dunării, unde din ambele maluri se înalță dealuri direct din fluviu. Aceste repere de lângă Babacaia ajută la identificarea exactă a situației, bunăoară stânca este în fluviu, se poate naviga de jur îmrejurul ei și din această cauză imaginile cu aceasta sunt executate din varii direcții. Pe unele imagini poate apărea și cu reflexie în luciul apei, multiplicând senzația de distorsiune în spațiu.

Vârful actual, singular, al stâncii Babacaia, fotografiat din partea de est.

Masa calcaroasă a singuraticei stânci Babacaia s-a transformat din sedimentele acumulate în marea jurasică în rocă carbonatică. Dimensiunea ei trebuie să fi fost inițial mult mai mare dar a fost îmbrățisată de Dunăre și a fost supusă forțelor externe ale vântului, ale apelor pluviale, ale procesului de îngheț/dezgheț, și astfel suprafața calcaroasă s-a corodat în timp. Literatura care face referire la stâncă menționează în general că în perioada romană sau turcă putea găzdui un turn de veghe, dar este mai degrabă neverosimil întrucât militarilor postați aici ar fi trebuit să li se asigure constant proviziile. Locul nu dispune nici măcar de apă curată, dar mai presus de asta, din cauza dimensiunii reduse, stânca ar fi devenit mai degrabă închsioare pentru ei. Suprafața actuală se încadrează aproximativ într-un cerc cu diametrul de 15 metri, în funcție de nivelul apei, suprafață care înainte de înființarea lacului de acumulare varia puternic. La nivel scăzut al apei, la sud de stânca principală, adică în direcția sensului de curgere a fluviului, se prezenta un mal de piatră unde se putea debarca foarte ușor, mai mult decât atât, conform imaginilor vremii, se înrădăcinaseră o serie de arbuști, dar cel mai probabil aceștia erau nevoiți să existe în condiții deosebit de vitrege. 

Ruptura proaspătă fotografiată dinspre nord.

Babacaia  se poate escalada cel mai usor din partea din vest, aici avem cea mai domoală pantă, dar și aici înclinarea este de minim 60 grade, față de partea nordică și estică unde stânca iese aproape vertical din Dunăre. Aceste două fațete ale stâncii se disting însă cu usirință. Partea dinspre est este afectată de intemperii, acoperită de pete, în mai multe locuri s-au înrădăcinat mușchi și licheni în timp ce partea de nord pare aproape netedă prin comparație. Din punct de vedere geologic vedem aici rocă proaspătă, ceea ce dezvăluie evident o suprafață de rupere recentă, unde forțele externe încă nu au reușit să își lase amprenta. Starea geologică indică evident prăbușirea recentă a stâncii, ceea ce este evidențiat și de imaginile pe care le avem la dispoziție. Existența vârfului bifurcat al stâncii Babacaia este evidentă și până pe la mijlocul secolului XX. În pofida faptului ca este un secol destul de bine documentat și chiar mai mult de atât, construcția hidorcentralei a concentrat o atenție deosebită în zonă, nu am putut afla când și de ce a dispărut coloana nordică a stâncii.

Stânca Babacai cu mitră, fotografiată din partea de sud. Kajtor I./MTI

Cert este că, în luna august a anului 1969, cele două vârfuri ale Babacaiei încă au putut fi fotografiate de Kajtor I. iar imaginea a putut fi publicată în Buletinul Hidrologic. Pare plauzibil ca stânca să se fi prăbușit în lacul de acumulare deja existent. Din păcate nu am putut descoperi când s-a întâmplat asta. În prima imagine, cea din 1963, se poate bănui deja o crăpătură lată, între vârful bifurcat si până la bază. Posibil că celălalt vârf să se fi surpat din cauza lucrărilor de la hidrocentrală, ori din cauza ridicării nivelului apei, ori din cauza înghețului, eventual niște turiști neatenți s-au aventurat prea mult pe el, ori cine știe, cineva a dorit sa cioplească și aici figura unui dac. Cineva trebuie să fi observat totuși… mai ales că pe unul din vârfuri era si panou de semnalizare pentru navigație. În orice caz există speranță că s-a documentat surparea și în articolele de presă din limba românâ și undeva, cineva, cândva, va da peste această informație nu prea importantă.

Mulțumiri lui Attila Gyulai pentru ajutor și traducere!