There is a spectre haunting these pictures. Visions of a long lost Danubian world coming alive again, like a ghost in an ancient manor house on Alexandru Cristian Beșliu's pictures. He uses Danube View, Google's new development like an expert, on which we can see the river's most scenic part just like as on board of a cruiser ship. Old postcards stick to the Danube View in the Iron Gates, where an island, Ada Kaleh sleeps her dream 33 meters below the Danube's surface.
Alexandru Cristian Beșliu uploads these postcards pinned to the Danube View images to his own album on facebook. There is a minor distortion, because the Iron Gate I. hydroelectrical dam has been risen the Danube's surface since the pictures were taken, so there is at least 33 meters between the water level of Danube View and of the postcards. The main guidelines are the mountain ranges.
Images of the drowned island are not only shocking for those who lived there. We know of many villages like Ada Kaleh, drowned in a reservoir. We may get goose-bumps of the past little enclave of Turkey. The surrealistic view could be intensified with the divers stumbling on the bottom of the Danube.
This year's hot summer combined with lack of precipitation have brought extreme low water levels on the Danube river. The blog asked its readers to send pictures if they found something interesting emerging from the riverbed, or they only find the landscape different from the usual. It looks like the low water will last well into autumn and with the drained catchment area we have to prepare for even lower water levels.
Lowest water level measured at Budapest in 2015.
According to the summer forecasts the level of the Danube was far from the lowest value ever measured, but we advised not to leave our camera at home. During September and October the water level fell steadily to the value of 63 cm at Budapest which is only 12 cm above the lowest.
But why are we interested in shallow water? - usually the floods draw more public attention. In times of low water Danubian depths reveals itself. Sand and gravel bars, holes in the riverbed, dykes etc. But while walking on the riverbanks you might find wrecks of ships, artifacts sunk long ago. The diving archaeologists are happy, they can work without their work-clothes. Europe's largest river shows us a different perspective, rather a desert than a river.
There are also those who are not quite happy with low water. For example those shipmen who can not work for weeks in this situation. Or the environmentalists who are unable to help when they see tons of dying fish and shell in the drying river arms.
So far the lowest value in Budapest ha been observed in 1947, 6th of November. This was 51 cm. At the Vác gauging station it was -45 cm on the 29th of August. This is not a typo, the water level can go below the lowest point of the gauging station, then they have to extend it downwards. Unfortunately this is not a rare occurrence.
If you happen to wander the banks of the Danube, do not forget to take pictures of the most interesting sights, and please send them (with the place, time and date) to our email address of facebook site.
These are the received pictures so far (from earliest to latest):
Jendricsné Vörös Dóra:Riverbank at Kisoroszi, 2015.07.17. 18:30 Budapest water level: 160 cm
Kurdi Imre: Felsőgöd beach. 2015.07.19. Budapest water level: 147 cm
Zirig Árpád: Mouth of the Morgó creek, Verőce 2015.07.22. 20:00 Budapest water level: 138 cm
Zirig Árpád: Mouth of the Morgó creek, Verőce 2015.07.22. 20:00 Budapest water level: 138 cm
Horváth Tibor: Alsógöd, volcanic tuff breaking the water. 2015.07.23. 22:30 Budapest water level: 139 cm
Riverbank beneath the stone wall in Verőce. 2015.07.25. 17:00. Budapest water level: 139 cm
Riverbank beneath the stone wall in Verőce. 2015.07.25. 17:00 Budapest water level: 139 cm
Horváth Tibor: Alsógöd, volcanic tuff breaking the water. 2015.07.26. 9:40 PM. Budapest water level: 137 cm
We have fourteen nominated island this year for the qualifying rounds, four more than last year. So there will be a great variety of Danubian islands to select your favourite from. You might find the second and third island from last year's finalists, and what's more, there is the winner on the below picture altogether with a new nominee. Also, we have an island outside Hungary, the famous Liberland.
Last year we had a sum of 436 votes in the qualifying rounds, this year we hope there will be more. Remember, only the first two island qualifies into the finals. There will be anothre island added by the Donauinslen blog. This voting ends midnight, October 12th 2015. The finals will begin next evening!
So here are the nominated islands for 2015, please select your favourite:
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