The intriguing faces carved into the rocks, exposed by the severe drought in the Amazon

A drop in water levels in the Amazon has exposed petroglyphs that have been largely submerged since they were carved more than a thousand years ago.

a severe drought made it possible to now easily see the human faces carved into the rocks on the coast.

Some were spotted during a previous drought, but archaeologists say they were able to find a wider variety of carvings this time.

The discovery was made in the city Manausin the north of Brazil.

The ancient faces appeared on a stretch of coast known as Ponta das Lajes, near where the Negro River and the Solimões River flow into the Amazon.

Archaeologist Jaime Oliveira told local media that they were carved by people who lived in the area Pre-Columbian era.

“This region is a pre-colonial place where traces of habitation can be found between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago“, he pointed. “What we see here are representations of anthropomorphic figures.”

Another rock has grooves believed to have been used by the area’s indigenous people to sharpen their arrows.

The carvings were last seen in 2010, when the water level of the Río Negro dropped to 13.63 meters.

River levels on Sunday fell below 13 meters for the first time and on Monday it fell even further, to 12.89 meters.

The Brazilian government attributes the drought to climate change and on the phenomenon of The boycausing precipitation volumes in the northern Amazon to fall below historical averages and river water levels to near record levels. (JO)