INCREDIBLE

3,400-Year-Old Palace Surfaces After Iraq Drought

A joint German-Kurdish team has been working on the excavation since fall 2018.

A 3,400-year-old palace has been discovered along the Tigris River after a drought in Iraq caused water levels in a major reservoir to recede. The palace was found in Kurdistan, a region in northern Iraq, and is estimated to date back to the Bronze Age. A lack of rain combined with the release of water from a reservoir at the Mosul Dam last autumn revealed the palace. A joint German-Kurdish team has been working on the excavation since fall 2018. The building has been preserved up to 7 meters high, and has walls up to 6 feet thick in some areas, The Independent reports. The area has been flooded since the 1980s, following the construction of the Mosul Dam.